Coming Of Age
SARAH HIOTT | FEB. 4, 2021 | ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
High school is a time when teenagers struggle with their identity while creating long-term relationships and navigating the path to adulthood. In film, the coming of age genre depicts real-life issues such as fitting in, self-discovery, and the transition out of childhood. Centered around sympathetic characters, coming of age movies instill within teens a sense of empowerment and relatability.
Movies in this genre encompass a wide variety of experiences, such as the fear of growing up, romance, and standing up to bullies, but ultimately have the same theme of finding oneself. This allows young viewers to apply the lessons that are shown in the movie to their own lives.
“[Coming of age] movies are more engaged with social politics,” said Mr. Brandon Cox, Stanton College Preparatory School’s film teacher. “[They] focus more on the introspective journey rather than a group or community’s journey.”
Movies have a transformative aspect that draws viewers into the characters’ worlds. By watching a protagonist stand up for themselves, adolescents share the character’s feeling of empowerment and learn more during the transition to adulthood.
“[These characters] all exude a sense of confidence, which I think really helped a lot of people, me included, be more confident in our own skin,” said sophomore McKenna Geohagan. “These movies also taught us to value what we have and stick up for ourselves.”
Like Geohagan, teens can feel a sense of validation by seeing a peer experience a similar situation, giving them a sense of companionship as they face their own personal struggles. They can identify with characters who experience similar feelings of loneliness, confusion, and heartbreak, giving a better understanding of their own emotions.
“The way the main characters in these movies faced their separate problems made me feel a lot less lonely,” said sophomore Rona Beringer. “It’s relieving to see media portraying characters that go through the same things that all of us do.”
These themes and conflicts faced by characters in coming of age movies stay timeless as teens continue to struggle with becoming an adult. Classics like “The Breakfast Club” have underlying messages, like identity and relationship resolution, that remain as applicable today as they were in the 1980s. Years later, movies like 2004’s “Mean Girls” have the same conflict of stereotyping peers based on who they associate with and the general opinions of them.
With these timeless themes are reflections on the current conflicts that teens are facing today. Newer coming of age movies like 2018’s '’Love, Simon'’ and 2012’s '’The Perks of Being A Wallflower'’ tackle modern challenges like coming out and mental health. Though mental health and coming out are not new issues, they are becoming a subject people are willing to discuss more openly, and teen films have changed in order to reflect that. These new discussions highlight the struggles teens are currently facing and show them how others cope.
Even though these movies are meant to be realistic, the endings can take away from the relatability that is expected. Fictional characters often experience a “fairytale ending” and achieve an overall resolution, which is usually not the case in real-life situations.
“Characters are always depicted as getting their way, which unfortunately doesn’t happen as often in everyday life,” said Beringer.
The idea of a happy ending is less realistic than real-life events, but these films use the sense of fantasy and unrealistic actions to add to the experience. Movies often end with satisfactory conclusions that create a concept of realistic plots.
“Part of [happy endings] is dramatic structure, but it is more of a positive aspect to the movies,” said Mr. Cox.
Even though these happy endings can give teenagers hope for their own story, it can also promote the thought that happy endings are expected and that it is common for everything to work out. A character successfully finding love and resolving every problem shows viewers that satisfactory endings are normal. A sense of false hope can lead to doubt amongst struggling teens who do not have the same kind of ending.
“Life doesn't always have happy endings and it’s okay to feel other things,” said senior Katie Russell. “[Bad outcomes] can show people that it’s okay to feel sad or stressed, and that they will get through it.”
False ideation of life is real, but seeing successful relationship endings can make teens feel like anything is possible, and give hope to teens who watch.
“We like the happy ending and everything working out because it makes people feel good and hopeful about their own lives,” said Russell.
The new ideas seen in recent films parallel the issues facing today’s teens, letting viewers find solace in movies that explore similar situations. Coming of age movies are a testament to the difficulty of adolescence and are a source of advice and confidence.