Best Coming of Age Movies
by extra21 | created - 12 Oct 2013 | updated - 23 Mar 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Way Way Back (2013)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the Water Wizz water park.
Directors: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb
Votes: 156,834 | Gross: $21.50M
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama
Charlie, a 15-year-old introvert, enters high school and is nervous about his new life. When he befriends his seniors, he learns to cope with his friend's suicide and his tumultuous past.
Director: Stephen Chbosky | Stars: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd
Votes: 547,818 | Gross: $17.74M
3. It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A clinically-depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck | Stars: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Dana DeVestern
Votes: 148,137 | Gross: $6.35M
The book was way better than the movie
4. Submarine (2010)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.
Director: Richard Ayoade | Stars: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor
Votes: 96,508 | Gross: $0.47M
5. The Art of Getting By (2011)
PG-13 | 83 min | Drama, Romance
George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who has made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.
Director: Gavin Wiesen | Stars: Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Sasha Spielberg
Votes: 60,806 | Gross: $1.43M
6. Juno (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes a selfless decision regarding the unborn child.
Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: Elliot Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman
Votes: 549,084 | Gross: $143.50M
7. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 517,899 | Gross: $59.89M
8. Assassination of a High School President (2008)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
At a Catholic high school, a sophomore newspaper reporter investigates a case of stolen SAT exams. He thinks he's nailed the suspect and managed to get the popular girl when he realises a larger conspiracy is afoot.
Director: Brett Simon | Stars: Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis, Michael Rapaport
Votes: 16,355
9. Daydream Nation (2010)
R | 98 min | Drama, Romance
A city girl who moves to a small town and becomes entangled in a love triangle between her high school teacher and a stoner classmate.
Director: Michael Goldbach | Stars: Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas
Votes: 13,052
10. Middle of Nowhere (2008)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An irresponsible mother blows her eldest daughter's college fund on her youngest daughter's modeling campaign.
Director: John Stockwell | Stars: Eva Amurri, Anton Yelchin, Willa Holland, Susan Sarandon
Votes: 4,039
11. Tanner Hall (2009)
R | 96 min | Drama, Romance
Tanner Hall is a vivid peek into the private world of an all-girls boarding school. In a cozy, but run-down New England, the knot of adolescent complexity is unraveled through the coming-of-age stories of four teenage girls.
Directors: Francesca Gregorini, Tatiana von Fürstenberg | Stars: Rooney Mara, Georgia King, Brie Larson, Amy Ferguson
Votes: 4,009 | Gross: $0.01M
12. Strike! (1998)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy
In the 1960s, a group of friends at an all girls school learn that their school is going to be combined with a nearby all boys school. They concoct a plan to save their school while dealing with everyday problems along the way.
Director: Sarah Kernochan | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Lynn Redgrave, Gaby Hoffmann, Rachael Leigh Cook
Votes: 7,594 | Gross: $0.97M
13. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
R | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner
Votes: 169,130 | Gross: $4.86M
14. Saved! (2004)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
When a girl attending a Christian high school becomes pregnant, all of her former friends turn on her and she is ostracized and demonized.
Director: Brian Dannelly | Stars: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit
Votes: 48,975 | Gross: $8.94M
15. Charlie Bartlett (2007)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rich kid becomes the self-appointed psychiatrist to the student body of his new high school.
Director: Jon Poll | Stars: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings
Votes: 66,690 | Gross: $3.95M
16. The Breakfast Club (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Votes: 436,375 | Gross: $45.88M
17. Sixteen Candles (1984)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
A girl's "sweet" sixteenth birthday is anything but special: her family forgets about it, and she suffers from every embarrassment possible.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling
Votes: 126,272 | Gross: $23.69M
18. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,309 | Gross: $70.14M
19. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Director: Jared Hess | Stars: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell
Votes: 237,705 | Gross: $44.54M
20. Remember the Daze (2007)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A glimpse into the teenage wasteland of suburbia 1999 that takes place over 24 hours, and the teenagers who make their way through the last day of high school.
Director: Jess Bond | Stars: Katrina Begin, Charles Chen, Melonie Diaz, Sunny Doench
Votes: 3,918
21. Matilda (1996)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A girl gifted with a keen intellect and psychic powers uses both to get even with her callous family and free her kindly schoolteacher from the tyrannical grip of a sadistic headmistress.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 174,516 | Gross: $33.08M
22. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,210,567 | Gross: $130.10M
23. My Girl (1991)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Vada is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. When Vada's father hires Shelly, a makeup expert, and begins to fall in love, Vada is outraged and does everything in her power to split them up.
Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis
Votes: 88,864 | Gross: $59.85M
24. The Sandlot (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.
Director: David Mickey Evans | Stars: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Art LaFleur, Patrick Renna
Votes: 102,343 | Gross: $32.42M
25. Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama
In 1976, a lower-middle-class teenager struggles to cope living with her neurotic family of nomads on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.
Director: Tamara Jenkins | Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Alan Arkin, Bryna Weiss, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 14,619 | Gross: $5.48M
26. Now and Then (1995)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Four 12-year-old girls grow up together during an eventful small-town summer in 1970.
Director: Lesli Linka Glatter | Stars: Christina Ricci, Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Birch
Votes: 32,413 | Gross: $27.40M
27. Big (1988)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Votes: 239,889 | Gross: $114.97M
28. The To Do List (2013)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Romance
Feeling pressured to become more sexually experienced before she goes to college, Brandy Klark makes a list of things to accomplish before hitting campus in the fall.
Director: Maggie Carey | Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Alia Shawkat
Votes: 41,912 | Gross: $3.45M
29. The First Time (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A shy senior and a down-to-earth junior fall in love over one weekend.
Director: Jonathan Kasdan | Stars: Dylan O'Brien, Britt Robertson, Victoria Justice, James Frecheville
Votes: 73,616 | Gross: $0.02M
30. The Virginity Hit (2010)
R | 86 min | Comedy, Drama
Four guys, one camera, and their experience chronicling the exhilarating and terrifying rite of passage: losing your virginity. As these guys help their buddy get laid, they must survive ... See full summary »
Directors: Huck Botko, Andrew Gurland | Stars: Matt Bennett, Zack Pearlman, Krysta Rodriguez, Jacob Davich
Votes: 3,984 | Gross: $0.54M
31. But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.
Director: Jamie Babbit | Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams, Brandt Wille
Votes: 41,193 | Gross: $2.21M
32. Lola Versus (2012)
R | 87 min | Comedy
Dumped by her boyfriend just three weeks before their wedding, Lola enlists her close friends for a series of adventures she hopes will help her come to terms with approaching 30 as a single woman.
Director: Daryl Wein | Stars: Greta Gerwig, Zoe Lister-Jones, Hamish Linklater, Joel Kinnaman
Votes: 8,986 | Gross: $0.25M
33. Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
PG-13 | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two ambitious girls, despite their parents' wishes, have their hearts set on careers in professional football.
Director: Gurinder Chadha | Stars: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher
Votes: 116,463 | Gross: $32.54M
34. Empire Records (1995)
PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Twenty-four hours in the lives of the young employees at Empire Records when they all grow up and become young adults thanks to each other and the manager. They all face the store joining a chain store with strict rules.
Director: Allan Moyle | Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Debi Mazar, Maxwell Caulfield, Rory Cochrane
Votes: 61,823 | Gross: $0.30M
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