Coming-of-Age Movies

A coming-of-age movie that is loosely based on Steven Spielberg's own childhood growing up in Arizona

Set in the summer of 1999, the film follows a 17-year-old ballroom dancer who experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend’s older brother.

In White Bird: A Wonder Story, we follow Julian, who has struggled to belong ever since he was expelled from his former school for his treatment of Auggie Pullman. To transform his life, Julian’s grandmother (Helen Mirren) finally reveals to Julian her own story of courage — during her youth in Nazi-occupied France, a boy shelters her from mortal danger. They find first love in a stunning, magical world of their own creation, while the boy’s mother (Gillian Anderson) risks everything to keep her safe. From Marc Forster (director of Finding Neverland and Christopher Robin) and based on R.J. Palacio’s book, White Bird, like Wonder before it, is an uplifting movie about how one act of kindness can live on forever.

First Love follows Jim (Fiennes Tiffin), a senior in high school experiencing the highs and lows of his first love with Ann (Park) as they navigate their pending departure to college. At the same time, Jim’s parents (Kruger and Donovan) are dealing with the familial fallout of a financial crisis.

A teen named Junior, a budding cartoonist, grows up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, he leaves his troubled school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

During their last days of summer and childhood -- the weekend before middle school begins -- four girls struggle with the harsh truths of growing up and embark on a mysterious adventure.

A coming-of-age drama that follows the story of Tito and Paco, two brothers who grew up in Milan with the same dream: to break into the world of rap and be heard through music. The duo seem destined for success—Paco is a born performer and Tito knows how to write like no other—but ambition, life, and love for the same woman will test their bond.

Anything’s Possible is a delightfully modern Gen Z coming-of-age story that follows Kelsa, a confident high school girl who is trans, as she navigates through senior year. When her classmate Khal gets a crush on her, he musters up the courage to ask her out, despite the drama he knows it could cause. What transpires is a romance that showcases the joy, tenderness, and pain of young love.

Honor is an ambitious high school senior whose sole focus is getting into an Ivy League college ... assuming she can first score the coveted recommendation from her guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin. Willing to do whatever it takes, Honor concocts a Machiavellian plan to take down her top three student competitors, until things take a turn when she unexpectedly falls for her biggest competition, Michael.

Signs of Love takes place in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, a tough neighborhood where cultures mix but the law of the streets still rules. Frankie, a young man from north Philly who dreams of a better life, struggles to provide a normal existence for his teen nephew. Frankie just hopes they can escape the traps of petty crime and substance abuse his father has fallen into. When Frankie meets Jane, a deaf girl from a well-off nearby family, he suddenly sees hope for love, and a better life – but only if he can escape the predicament of the streets and the influence of his older sister.

A homeschooled teenage girl enrolls in an Arizona high school, altering the ecosystem of the student body with her nonconformity.

The year? 1290. In the Medieval English village of Stonebridge, Lady Catherine (known as Birdy) is the youngest child of Lord Rollo and the Lady Aislinn. Her playground is Stonebridge Manor, a house that, like the family, has seen better days. Financially destitute and utterly greedy, Rollo sees his daughter as his path out of financial ruin by marrying her off to a wealthy man for money and land. But Birdy, like all the great teen heroines, is spirited, clever, and adventurous and ready to put off any suitor that comes calling in increasingly ingenious ways. Her imagination, defiance, and deep belief in her own right to independence put her on a collision course with her parents. When the vilest suitor of all arrives, they are presented with the ultimate test of love for their daughter.

Levi Miller stars as 15-year-old Benjamin Lane, a gifted young swimmer on the brink of the biggest swim meet of his life that could see him qualify for the Olympics. Pushed by his ruthless coach, Glenn (Robert Morgan) and his adoring but misguided mother, Kim (a terrific Laura Gordon), it’s unclear if Ben actually wants the life he’s seemingly being forced to chase. When his estranged father (Jason Isaacs) suddenly gets out of jail, Benjamin’s fight to escape his tumultuous past to Olympic glory becomes even more dangerous...

The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Christopher Lloyd) — J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams — with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Nora, a shy 14-year-old Berlin girl, will never forget this way too hot summer. Surrounded by people with disrupted biographies, from different cultures and backgrounds, she makes her way into adulthood. Nora gets her first period, falls in love with another girl, learns to stand up for herself and gets her heart broken for the first time. When summer ends, things will never be the same again for Nora.

The film tells the story of Javed (Viveik Kalra), a British teen of Pakistani descent growing up in the town of Luton, England, in 1987. Amidst the racial and economic turmoil of the times, he writes poetry as a means to escape the intolerance of his hometown and the inflexibility of his traditional father. But when a classmate introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen, Javed sees parallels to his working-class life in the powerful lyrics. As Javed discovers a cathartic outlet for his own pent-up dreams, he also begins to find the courage to express himself in his own unique voice.

Ned, the bullied outsider, and Conor, a new boy and star athlete, are forced to room together at their cloistered boarding school. Conor is drafted into the senior rugby team, whose actions dominate school life and whose privilege and entitlement have made Ned’s life to date at the school a misery. The boys take an instant and visceral dislike to each other, and Ned and Conor seem destined to remain enemies until an English teacher, Mr. Sherry (Andrew Scott), begins to drill into them the value of finding one’s own voice. This lesson isn’t appreciated by everyone though, not least the rugby coach, Pascal (Moe Dunford), who has his own agenda, and who harbors some deep suspicions about Sherry.

Follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old in 90s-era LA who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.