The best coming of age movies cover a very short period and change somebody permanently inside it. Eight are compared below on national preservation first, then critics’ listings, then worldwide box office.
Six of the eight take place over a single day, a single term or a single week. Every one runs under two hours, and the last column says what each film is actually about rather than what the poster suggests.
| # | Film | Runtime | Record on paper | What it is really about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) | 1 hour 43 minutes | National Film Registry, 2014 | A friend who cannot say he is unhappy |
| 2 | Eighth Grade (2018) | 1 hour 34 minutes | National Board of Review top ten | Social anxiety, filmed without a joke to release it |
| 3 | Bring It On (2000) | 1 hour 38 minutes | $90.5 million worldwide | A squad whose routines were stolen from another school |
| 4 | Love, Simon (2018) | 1 hour 50 minutes | $67.1 million worldwide | A secret, and who gets to decide when it is told |
| 5 | Napoleon Dynamite (2004) | 1 hour 22 minutes | $46.1 million worldwide | Rural boredom, and friendship without a plot |
| 6 | Booksmart (2019) | 1 hour 42 minutes | $25 million worldwide | Finding out the rules you followed did not matter |
| 7 | The Edge of Seventeen (2016) | 1 hour 42 minutes | $19.4 million worldwide | Grief that comes out as cruelty to everyone nearby |
| 8 | Dazed and Confused (1993) | 1 hour 38 minutes | $8.2 million worldwide | A generation with no plan and one night to fill |
Why These Films Cover Such Short Periods
Six of these eight take place over a day, a night or a single term. That is the form working properly: a coming of age film needs one pressure point rather than a timeline, and a compressed window forces every scene to change something.
It also keeps them short. Every film here runs under two hours and three finish inside a hundred minutes, which is unusual for any genre with this much award attention.
The test each one passes is simple. The main character has to be measurably different at the end, and the change has to cost them something they wanted.
The Eight Best Coming of Age Movies, Compared
1. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986): One Skipped School Day, and a Friend Falling Apart
Director: John Hughes · Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes · Starring: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara · National Film Registry, 2014
John Hughes wrote the script in a reported six days and the Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2014. The day out is the surface; the film belongs to Cameron.
The scene in front of the Seurat painting runs nearly a minute with no dialogue and is the only moment the film stops moving. It is also the point.
It grossed $70.7 million and runs 103 minutes. Ferris is not the one who changes.
2. Eighth Grade (2018): The Most Uncomfortable Film Here, and the Most Accurate
Director: Bo Burnham · Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes · Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson · National Board of Review top ten
Bo Burnham cast Elsie Fisher, who was actually thirteen, and shot the film without the usual relief of a comic subplot. the National Board of Review named it among the ten best films of 2018.
The pool party sequence is three minutes of a girl walking through a garden and it is more tense than most thrillers manage in twenty. The sound design does it.
It grossed $14.3 million and runs 94 minutes, the shortest film here apart from Napoleon Dynamite.
3. Bring It On (2000): A Sports Film That Is Really About Plagiarism
Director: Peyton Reed · Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes · Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford · $90.5 million worldwide
Peyton Reed makes a cheerleading comedy whose actual plot is a white suburban squad discovering their championship routines were taken from a Black school in Compton.
The film does not resolve that comfortably: the stolen routines are abandoned and the squad loses. It grossed $90.5 million, the highest figure on this page.
At 98 minutes it is far sharper than its reputation and the stunt work is performed by the cast.
4. Love, Simon (2018): The First Major Studio Teen Romance of Its Kind
Director: Greg Berlanti · Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes · Starring: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel · $67.1 million worldwide
Greg Berlanti directed the first major studio film centred on a gay teenage romance, and it grossed $67.1 million on a conventional romantic comedy structure.
The film is careful about the one thing that matters: Simon is outed by someone else, and the script treats that as a real harm rather than a plot accelerator.
At 110 minutes it is the longest pick here. Jennifer Garner gets the scene everyone quotes and it is only about ninety seconds.
5. Napoleon Dynamite (2004): The Shortest Film Here and the Strangest
Director: Jared Hess · Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes · Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino · $46.1 million worldwide
Jared Hess made it for a reported $400,000 and it grossed $46.1 million. There is almost no story: a school election, a dance, a van.
The film refuses to mock its characters even when the audience does, and the final dance is played completely straight, which is why it works.
At 82 minutes it is by some distance the shortest film on this page and the least like anything else on it.
6. Booksmart (2019): One Night, and Two Students Who Worked Too Hard
Director: Olivia Wilde · Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes · Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams · $25 million worldwide
Olivia Wilde’s first feature takes the single-night structure and gives it to two girls who discover the classmates they looked down on got into the same universities.
Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein improvised a significant part of the dialogue, and the argument in the final act is the best written scene in the film.
It grossed $25 million and runs 102 minutes. It is the most verbally dense pick here.
7. The Edge of Seventeen (2016): A Teenager Who Is Genuinely Difficult
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig · Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes · Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Haley Lu Richardson · $19.4 million worldwide
Kelly Fremon Craig writes a protagonist who is unpleasant for most of the film and does not apologise for it. Hailee Steinfeld earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Woody Harrelson plays the teacher as someone who refuses to perform sympathy, and their scenes are the structural spine.
It grossed $19.4 million and runs 102 minutes. The brother is not a villain, which most films in this genre cannot resist making him.
8. Dazed and Confused (1993): The Last Day of Term, and Nothing Else
Director: Richard Linklater · Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes · Starring: Jason London, Matthew McConaughey, Joey Lauren Adams · $8.2 million worldwide
Richard Linklater removes the plot entirely: the film is the last day of school in 1976 and the night that follows, with roughly twenty characters and no central problem.
Matthew McConaughey was cast after a chance meeting in a bar and improvised the line everybody quotes. The hazing is filmed as genuinely unpleasant rather than nostalgic.
It grossed $8.2 million, the smallest figure here, and runs 98 minutes. It became a staple on video rather than in cinemas.
Three Decades, and the Same Structure Each Time
Put these in release order and the form does not move at all. What changes is the pressure: a 1986 film worries about a friend who cannot speak, a 2018 film worries about a girl performing confidence to a camera.
- 1986 to 2000: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dazed and Confused, Bring It On
- 2004 to 2016: Napoleon Dynamite, The Edge of Seventeen
- 2018 to 2019: Eighth Grade, Love, Simon, Booksmart
The three most recent films are also the three with the least plot, which is not a coincidence. The genre has moved toward a character and away from an event.
How These Eight Were Compared
Each film needed a record outside itself: National Film Registry selection, a National Board of Review listing or a confirmed worldwide gross, ranked in that order. The list is not ordered on affection.
Each also had to leave its main character changed by something that cost them, and had to be in wide enough circulation to stream tonight.
The subject column is the editorial judgement and the most useful one. Three of these films are marketed as comedies and are not primarily funny, which is worth knowing before you put one on for a group.
How to Choose Your Next Coming of Age Film
If you want the one the Library of Congress decided to keep, take Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and watch Cameron rather than Ferris. If you want the best-written recent film here, take Booksmart.
If you have 82 minutes and no appetite for a plot, take Napoleon Dynamite. If you want the one that will make an adult wince in recognition, take Eighth Grade, and be aware it is uncomfortable by design.
Dazed and Confused then Booksmart runs 3 hours 20 and puts the same last-night structure twenty-six years apart. The romantic dramas compared on cost are the next step for anyone who has outgrown the school setting, and a list of songs people actually sing covers the soundtrack half of the appeal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best coming of age movie?
By record, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, selected for the National Film Registry in 2014. Eighth Grade has the strongest critical standing of the recent films and was named among the National Board of Review’s ten best of 2018.
Which of these teen films is suitable for younger teenagers?
Bring It On, Napoleon Dynamite and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are the three most commonly watched by younger teenagers. Booksmart and Dazed and Confused are both adult comedies with drug use and strong language throughout.
How long are these coming of age films?
All eight run under two hours. Napoleon Dynamite is the shortest at 82 minutes, then Eighth Grade at 94 and Bring It On and Dazed and Confused at 98 each. Love, Simon is the longest at 110 minutes.
Is Eighth Grade suitable for an actual eighth grader?
It was rated for older teenagers in the United States, largely for language and one scene of coercion in a car. Many parents watch it with a thirteen-year-old rather than before or after, because the discomfort is the point of the film.
