Rumble Fish (1983)
[6] Matt Dillon stars in this Francis Ford Coppola film about a high school hooligan who's infamous older brother (Mickey Rourke) comes back to town to try and change his bleak outlook on life. Rumble Fish is based on a…
The Way, Way Back (2013)
[6] Liam James stars as a shy fourteen-year-old forced to suffer summer vacation with his freshly-divorced mother (Toni Collette) and her nasty boyfriend (Steve Carell). While he waits for his mother to grow a pair and throw the bum out,…
Swing Kids (1993)
[8] Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, and Frank Whaley play tight-knit German teenagers rebelling against the growing Nazi party by embracing a counter culture of long hair and banned U.S. swing music. But as each of the boys is pressured…
Thirteen (2003)
[7] As if pre-teen and teenaged girls didn't already scare the shit out of me, Catherine Hardwicke (who later helmed the first Twilight flick) had to go ahead and direct this harrowing descent into hormonal angst. Evan Rachel Wood turns…
The Boy Who Could Fly (1986)
[7] The Boy Who Could Fly is a goofy movie, but it has a lot of heart. Lucy Deakins stars as Milly, a fourteen-year-old girl who has just moved to a new town after her father committed suicide. She discovers…
Beautiful Thing (1996)
[8] This British independent flick is a far better gay 'coming out' movie than most. Glen Berry plays Jamie, a teenager who skips school to avoid harassment during gym class, and Scott Neal plays Ste, Jamie's next door neighbor. When…
Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)
[4] Bless Patrick Dempsey for acting his little heart out in this schmaltzy, cliche-ridden '80s overdose. It's basically a story of boy rents girl. Dempsey's character is a loser who pays a popular girl (Amanda Peterson, also acting her heart…
The Kings of Summer (2013)
[7] Three teenaged boys run away from home and build a house in the woods where they live off the land, experiment with facial hair, and let a pretty young girl come between them. The boys are played with plenty…
Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
[8] This 2002 classic, period-piece rendition of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby is sweet, sentimental, and beautifully executed. I personally found it irresistible. Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) is perfectly cast as Nicholas, a young man who discovers his…
About a Boy (2002)
[7]
An aimless playboy and a dorky middle-schooler become friends through serendipity in About a Boy, based on the book by Nick Hornby and directed by Chris and Paul Weitz of American Pie fame. Hugh Grant plays the playboy, coasting on royalties from a famous song his father wrote. Nicholas Hoult, who would later grow up to later star in X-Men: First Class and Warm Bodies, plays the kid. I have a soft spot for surrogate father/son relationships in movies (and I don’t think I’m alone), but Grant and Hoult do a commendable job playing the parts believably and steering clear of cheese. The film manages to incorporate some real drama into the mix, especially regarding Hoult’s suicidal mother (Toni Collette), without getting too weighed down.