Licorice Pizza (2021)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

[8] Hollywood often waters down characters and storylines to make them universally appealing. Filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson with Licorice Pizza, or David O. Russell with Joy and The Fighter, are challenging that notion with stories of tremendous specificity --…
A Home at the End of the World (2004)

A Home at the End of the World (2004)

[7] Colin Farrell stars as a free-spirited young man who enters into a romantic triangle with a woman (Robin Wright) and his boyhood friend (Dallas Roberts). A Home at the End of the World, based on the novel by Michael…
Little Women (1933)

Little Women (1933)

[6] George Cukor directs Katharine Hepburn as Jo March in one of the earliest screen adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, a chronicle of the lives and loves of four sisters growing up in New England during the Civil…
Thumbsucker (2005)

Thumbsucker (2005)

[4] Lou Taylor Pucci stars in writer/director Mike Mills' adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel about a nervous high school student afflicted with thumbsucking. Once he's prescribed ritalin, Pucci's character starts to feel more confident. Unfortunately, the drug also turns him…
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

[8] Two restless Mexican teenagers (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) take a road trip with an older woman (Maribel Verdú) who just learned her husband cheated on her. Their destination is a private beach that may or may not…
L.I.E. (2001)

L.I.E. (2001)

[7] Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) and Brian Cox (Manhunter) star in this deeply unsettling coming-of-age drama about a motherless teen who robs houses with his friends until they entangle with an older man who's a pillar of the…
Center of My World (2016)

Center of My World (2016)

[7] Jakob M. Erwa directs his own adaptation of Andreas Steinhöfel's novel about a 17-year-old who returns from summer camp to find his hedonistic mother and twin sister have become uncomfortably distant. At the same time, he enters into his first…
Sleepers (1996)

Sleepers (1996)

[8] Four boys are sent to a juvenile detention center where they are raped and brutalized by the guards. Thirteen years later, two of the boys have a chance encounter with the head guard that ends in vengeful bloodshed. It's…
Mad Love (1995)

Mad Love (1995)

[3] Chris O'Donnell and Drew Barrymore star in this teenaged drama/romance about high school students who hit the road after Barrymore's parents put her in a psychiatric ward for attempting suicide. The young lovers think the open road and fresh…
The Half of It (2020)

The Half of It (2020)

[7] Writer/director Alice Wu tells us in the beginning of The Half of It that none of the characters will get what they want, and she's not lying. But that won't stop you from rooting for all three characters in…