My all-time favorite coming of age movies

by tama333 | created - 12 Nov 2017 | updated - 05 Oct 2020 | Public
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1. Stand by Me (1986)

R | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

75 Metascore

A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.

Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell

Votes: 443,963 | Gross: $52.29M

2. Now and Then (1995)

PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

50 Metascore

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: 32,575 | Gross: $27.40M

3. My Girl (1991)

PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family

56 Metascore

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: 89,385 | Gross: $59.85M

4. Mermaids (1990)

PG-13 | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

56 Metascore

An unconventional single mother relocates with her two daughters to a small Massachusetts town in 1963, where a number of events and relationships both challenge and strengthen their familial bonds.

Director: Richard Benjamin | Stars: Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling

Votes: 36,030 | Gross: $35.42M

5. Running on Empty (1988)

PG-13 | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Music

67 Metascore

The eldest son of a fugitive family comes of age and wants to live his own life.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: River Phoenix, Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, Jonas Abry

Votes: 17,995 | Gross: $2.84M

6. Strike! (1998)

PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy

60 Metascore

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: 7,651 | Gross: $0.97M

7. A Walk on the Moon (1999)

R | 107 min | Drama, Romance

71 Metascore

The world of a young housewife is turned upside down when she has an affair with a free-spirited blouse salesman.

Director: Tony Goldwyn | Stars: Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Bobby Boriello, Anna Paquin

Votes: 9,254 | Gross: $4.74M

8. How to Make an American Quilt (1995)

PG-13 | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Bride-to-be Finn Dodd hears tales of romance and sorrow from her elders as they construct a quilt.

Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse | Stars: Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Kaelynn Craddick

Votes: 12,581 | Gross: $23.57M

9. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)

PG-13 | 116 min | Drama

48 Metascore

After years of mother-daughter tension, Siddalee receives a scrapbook detailing the wild adventures of the "Ya-Yas", her mother's girlhood friends.

Director: Callie Khouri | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, James Garner

Votes: 21,033 | Gross: $69.60M

10. The Virgin Suicides (1999)

R | 97 min | Drama, Romance

77 Metascore

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: 170,112 | Gross: $4.86M

11. Almost Famous (2000)

R | 122 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

90 Metascore

A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.

Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand

Votes: 294,846 | Gross: $32.53M

12. The Man in the Moon (1991)

PG-13 | 99 min | Drama, Romance

73 Metascore

A coming of age story set in the south of the U.S. when Elvis was King.

Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, Gail Strickland, Reese Witherspoon

Votes: 18,542 | Gross: $2.85M

13. Christiane F. (1981)

R | 138 min | Biography, Drama

A teen girl in 1970s Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.

Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Natja Brunckhorst, Eberhard Auriga, Peggy Bussieck, Lothar Chamski

Votes: 29,526

14. The Blue Lagoon (1980)

R | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

31 Metascore

In the Victorian period, two children are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together, unaware that sexual maturity will eventually intervene.

Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels

Votes: 77,021 | Gross: $58.85M

15. Dead Poets Society (1989)

PG | 128 min | Comedy, Drama

79 Metascore

Maverick teacher John Keating returns in 1959 to the prestigious New England boys' boarding school where he was once a star student, using poetry to embolden his pupils to new heights of self-expression.

Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles

Votes: 548,376 | Gross: $95.86M

16. Liberty Heights (1999)

R | 127 min | Comedy, Drama, Music

75 Metascore

Baltimore, Fall 1954: Schools implement the new integration law. Ben finds the "colored" girl in his class cute - upsetting his Jewish mom and granny. Ben talks to her while his brother looks for his WASP dream girl.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Adrien Brody, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, Ben Foster

Votes: 7,076 | Gross: $3.73M

17. Show Me Love (1998)

Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

73 Metascore

Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.

Director: Lukas Moodysson | Stars: Alexandra Dahlström, Rebecka Liljeberg, Erica Carlson, Mathias Rust

Votes: 55,705 | Gross: $0.17M

18. White Oleander (2002)

PG-13 | 109 min | Drama

61 Metascore

A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

Director: Peter Kosminsky | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger, Robin Wright, Alison Lohman

Votes: 34,280 | Gross: $16.35M

19. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama

83 Metascore

An awkward seventh-grader struggles to cope with inattentive parents, snobbish class-mates, a smart older brother, an attractive younger sister and her own insecurities in suburban New Jersey.

Director: Todd Solondz | Stars: Heather Matarazzo, Christina Brucato, Victoria Davis, Christina Vidal

Votes: 37,345 | Gross: $4.77M

20. An Education (2009)

PG-13 | 100 min | Drama

85 Metascore

A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.

Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams

Votes: 138,966 | Gross: $12.57M

21. The NeverEnding Story (1984)

PG | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

46 Metascore

A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Gerald McRaney

Votes: 157,735 | Gross: $20.16M

22. The Goonies (1985)

PG | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family

62 Metascore

A group of young misfits called The Goonies discover an ancient map and set out on an adventure to find a legendary pirate's long-lost treasure.

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman

Votes: 299,940 | Gross: $61.50M

23. E.T. (1982)

PG | 115 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi

92 Metascore

A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace

Votes: 439,776 | Gross: $435.11M

24. Radio Days (1987)

PG | 88 min | Comedy

74 Metascore

A nostalgic look at radio's golden age focusing on one ordinary family and the various performers in the medium.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Mike Starr, Paul Herman

Votes: 36,508 | Gross: $14.79M

25. Foxes (1980)

R | 106 min | Drama

65 Metascore

A group of four teenage girls come of age in the asphalt desert of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley arranged with a blazing soundtrack and endless drinking, drugs and sex.

Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan, Kandice Stroh

Votes: 5,055

26. Breaking Away (1979)

PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport

91 Metascore

A working-class Indiana teen obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl while searching for life goals with his friends.

Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley

Votes: 25,567 | Gross: $16.42M

27. Dazed and Confused (1993)

R | 103 min | Comedy

82 Metascore

The adventures of high school and junior high students on the last day of school in May 1976.

Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey, Rory Cochrane

Votes: 200,511 | Gross: $7.99M

28. Melody (1971)

G | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married as soon as possible.

Director: Waris Hussein | Stars: Mark Lester, Tracy Hyde, Jack Wild, Colin Barrie

Votes: 3,190

29. Lolita (1997)

R | 137 min | Drama, Romance

46 Metascore

An English professor falls for a minor, and has to face the consequences of his actions.

Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith, Frank Langella

Votes: 66,882 | Gross: $1.40M

30. C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)

Not Rated | 129 min | Comedy, Drama

81 Metascore

A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée

Votes: 34,306



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