Subgenre Sampler

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Holdovers, The (2023): Dir. Alexander Payne
Feat. Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa; A jaded teacher is forced to remain on campus during the snowy Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere else to go. He soon…
How To Have Sex (2023): Dir. Molly Manning Walker
Feat. Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley…; A vibrant and sometimes confronting portrait of youth binge culture that clings like day–glo lycra to three British teenage girls at a Greek…
Monster (Kaibutsu) (2023): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa; Director Hirokazu Kore–eda returns home with his first Japanese film since the Palm d'Or–winning "Shoplifters" (2018) with this…
No Hard Feelings (2023): Dir. Gene Stupnitsky
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew Broderick, Natalie Morales…; Jennifer Lawrence produces and stars in this sweet–natured sex comedy spiked by more than a few laugh–out–loud moments and at least…
Radical (2023): Dir. Christopher Zalla
Feat. Eugenio Derbez; A quality, engaging drama based on the true story of a teacher in a neglected Mexican border town that tries a radical new method to unlock his…
Son, The (2023): Dir. Florian Zeller
Feat. Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby…; A teenage son moves out on his single mother to live with his father. The part time dad tries to make the best of the situation. But juggling his new…
Playground (2022): Dir. Laura Wandel
Feat. Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret; 7–year–old Nora and her big brother Abel are back to school. When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect…
The Teachers' Lounge (Des Lehrerzimmer) (2022): Dir. Ilker Catak
Feat. Leonie Benesch; A bracing drama about an idealistic maths teacher caught in the pressure–cooker environment of a contemporary German high school. Leonie…
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022): Dir. Olivia Newman
Feat. Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor Smith, Harris Dickinson…; From the best–selling novel comes a captivating mystery. Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself…
Belfast (2021): Dir. Kenneth Branagh
Feat. Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan…; Richly evocative cine–memoir from director Kenneth Branagh, depicting a young boy's childhood in late 60's Belfast, Northern Ireland. Set…
Chaos Walking (2021): Dir. Doug Liman
Feat. Daisy Ridley, Tom Holland, Mads Mikkelsen…; Doug Liman directs this young adult sci–fi film, based on the first book in the literary trilogy of the same name by Patrick Ness, who also…
Licorice Pizza (2021): Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Feat. Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn…; Celebrated auteur Paul Thomas Anderson amusingly runs through the fads of the 1970s while loosely following the relationship between a precocious…
Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades, Paris 13e) (2021): Dir. Jacques Audiard
Feat. Noémie Merlant, Makita Samba, Lucie Zhang…; Jacques Audiard’s film charts the interwoven relationships between four twenty–somethings, beautifully played by Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba,…
Poppy (2021): Dir. Linda Niccol
Feat. Libby Hunsdale, Ari Boyland, Seb Hunter…; Endearing Kiwi drama about an ambitious teenager who aspires to be a car mechanic despite the hurdles – which include her protective brother…
Tale of Love and Desire, A (2021): Dir. Leyla Bouzid
Feat. Sami Outalbali, Zbeida Belhajamor; Ahmed, an 18–year old Frenchman of Algerian origin, meets Farah, a young Tunisian girl. He discovers a collection of sensual and erotic Arab…
To Chiara (A Chiara) (2021): Dir. Jonas Carpignano
Feat. Swamy Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Giorgia Rotolo…; A rites–of–passage drama in the Italian neo–realist tradition that examines the impact of Mafia activity on those in the close…
West Side Story (2021): Dir. Steven Spielberg
Feat. Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose…; Steven Spielberg's dazzling adaptation of the 1957 musical, an American fairy tale of doomed love and the rivalry between Puerto Rican and white…
Craft: Legacy, The (2020): Dir. Zoe Lister Jones
Feat. Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone…; Sequel to the 1996 film THE CRAFT, following four high school students who form a coven of witches. After the original's all–male creative…
Freaky (2020): Dir. Christopher Landon
Feat. Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran…; Christopher Landon (HAPPY DEATH DAY) directs this big hearted and hilarious teen comedy slasher with loving nods to classics of the genre, especially…
Go! (Go Karts) (2020): Dir. Owen Trevor
Feat. Richard Roxburgh, Frances O’Connor, Anastasia Bampos…; Formulaic but winsome movie from the writer of PAPER PLANES, about a charismatic young boy and his dream of winning the Australian National Go Kart…
New Mutants, The (2020): Feat. Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton…; This thirteenth and final installment in the X–Men film series follows five young mutants fighting to save themselves while being held in a…
Babyteeth (2019): Dir. Shannon Murphy
Feat. Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Michelle Lotters…; Australian coming–of–age drama marking the feature debut for director Shannon Murphy (KILLING EVE), from a screenplay by Rita Kalnejais,…
Booksmart (2019): Dir. Olivia Wilde
Feat. Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein; Sensational directorial debut for actor Olivia Wilde, who transforms the High School coming–of–age comedy into a riotous celebration of…
Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019): Dir. Simon Bird
Feat. Earl Cave, Tamsin Greig, Rob Brydon; Charming coming–of–age comedy–drama starring newcomer Earl Cave (son of Nick Cave) as a teenage heavy metal fan struggling to get…
Five Feet Apart (2019): Dir. Justin Baldoni
Feat. Haley Lu Richardson, Cole Sprouse, Moises Arias; Teen romance with two cystic fibrosis patients whose undeniable attraction threatens the rules and boundaries put in place to protect their health,…
Good Boys (2019): Dir. Gene Stupnitsky
Feat. Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon, Keith L. Williams; Three sixth–grade boys find themselves in a series of misadventures after ditching school. A raunchy comedy with a sweet heart.
Honey Boy (2019): Dir. Alma Har’el
Feat. Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe…; A fascinating and confronting drama based on a script that actor Shia LaBeouf wrote in rehab as a form of therapy, with the actor playing a…
Hunting, The (TV Series) (2019): Feat. Asher Keddie, Richard Roxburgh, Sam Reid…; Miniseries set in a contemporary, multicultural Australia and following two high school teachers after the revelation that their students are sharing…
Impulse (TV Series) (2019): Feat. Maddie Hasson, Sarah Desjardins; A withdrawn 16 year–old girl who struggles to fit in after moving to a new town discovers she has the ability to teleport while dealing with a…
Monos (2019): Dir. Alejandro Landes
Feat. Julianne Nicholson, Moises Arias, Sofía Buenaventura…; A dark contemporary fable inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, set in a remote and mountainous region of Columbia, where a group of teenage…
My Days of Glory (Mes jours de gloire) (2019): Dir. Antoine de Bary
Feat. Vincent Lacoste, Emmanuelle Devos, Christopher Lambert; French comedy about a self–absorbed, unemployed twenty–something who shamelessly sponges off his parents after his promising career as a…
Waves (2019): Dir. Trey Edward Schults
Feat. Kelvin Harrison Jr., Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell…; An emotionally resonant character drama from accomplished director Trey Edward Shults (IT COMES AT NIGHT, KRISHA) following a suburban African…
Blockers (2018): Dir. Kay Cannon
Feat. Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena; A surprisingly tender sex–comedy about a trio of parents who attempt to stop their teenage daughters from having sex on prom night. Features…
Darkest Minds, The (2018): Dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Feat. Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Mandy Moore…; Young adult dystopian thriller where the world is affected by a plague that kills almost every child in the human population, and those that remain…
Eighth Grade (2018): Dir. Bo Burnham
Feat. Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson; Superb coming–of–age drama providing an unflinching glimpse into the experience of a 13–year–old girl striving to gain social…
Every Day (2018): Dir. Michael Sucsy
Feat. Angourie Rice, Justice Smith, Debby Ryan…; Romantic drama based on the New York Times bestseller by David Levithan. A 16 year old girl called Rhiannon falls in love with a mysterious traveling…
Festival, The (2018): Dir. Iain Morris
Feat. Joe Thomas, Hannah Tointon, Hammed Animashaun; Big–hearted British buddy comedy from the director of THE INBETWEENERS following a nerdy post–grad who embraces the mayhem of a…
Hate U Give, The (2018): Dir. George Tillman Jr.
Feat. Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby…; A powerful and thought provoking drama about the consequences of gun violence, police brutality and racism in America. Starr is a black teenager who…
Love, Simon (2018): Dir. Greg Berlanti
Feat. Nick Robinson, Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner; A high school love story taking the best of the genre cliches (yes, John Hughes) and translating them into a gay context – an unprecedented…
Mid 90s (2018): Dir. Jonah Hill
Feat. Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges…; Evocative coming–of–age drama from actor–director Jonah Hill, following a 13–year old boy in 90's Los Angeles who falls in…
Miseducation of Cameron Post, The (2018): Dir. Desiree Akhavan
Feat. Chloe Grace Moretz, Jennifer Ehle, John Gallagher, Jr.…; Surprise winner of the U.S. Grand Jury prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, this heart–breaking indie drama stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a…
Truth or Dare (2018): Dir. Jeff Wadlow
Feat. Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane; Teen horror fodder from the mega–successful Blumhouse productions in which a harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when…
13 Reasons Why (TV Series) (2017): Feat. Dylan Minnette, Katherine Langford, Christian Navarro…; Controversial and sometimes gruelling teenage mystery series about a high school student who discovers a box of cassette tapes recorded by his friend…
Anne with an E (TV Series) (2017-2019): Feat. Amybeth McNulty, Geraldine James, R.H. Thompson…; Celebrated Canadian TV series updating the world of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and giving a refreshing new tone to the classic…
Before I Fall (2017): Feat. Zoey Deutch, Elena Kampouris, Logan Miller…; Teen drama following the likeable Samantha as she re–lives the final day in her life seven times and confronts the meaning of her existence and…
High Life (2017): Feat. Odessa Young; A humorous and heartfelt portrayal of Bipolar Disorder, following a grounded and intelligent Australian teen (Odessa Young) who unexpectedly begins…
I Kill Giants (2017): Dir. Anders Walter
Feat. Madison Wolfe, Imogen Poots, Zoe Saldana; A magical–realist coming–of–age movie following an independent young girl who escapes the troubles of her reality by retreating…
Lady Bird (Ladybird) (2017): Dir. Greta Gerwig
Feat. Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts…; Sublime coming–of–age drama which marks the writing and directing debut of formidable indie talent Greta Gerwig, who draws upon her own…
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2017): Dir. Wes Ball
Feat. Dylan O‘Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster; The epic finale of THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy, the dystopian adventure series based on the popular young adult novels.
Pitch Perfect 3 (2017): Dir. Trish Sie
Feat. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld…; Adds nothing new to the formula, but it's a winning one – The Bellas reunite after finishing college and return to their a capella roots after…
Riverdale (TV Series) (2017): Feat. KJ Apa; Millennial neo–noir teen drama set in the deceptively idyllic town of Riverdale, based on characters from the Archie Comics universe. Centres…
Screwed (Pihalla) (2017): Dir. Nils-Erik Ekblom
Feat. Mikko Kauppila, Sanna Majuri, Valtteri Lehtinen; Sweet–natured Finnish coming–of–age drama about two teenage boys who fall in love during a summer in the countryside.
Skate Kitchen (2017): Dir. Crystal Moselle
Feat. Rachelle Vinberg, Dede Lovelace, Nina Moran; Beautifully evocative and uplifting teen drama set in the world of NYC skateboarding, following a group of real–life female skaters who are…
Space Between Us, The (2017): Dir. Peter Chelsom
Feat. Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino…; Sci–fi romance where a teenage boy who has grown up on Mars visits earth for the first time. Enlisting the help of a misfit girl from Colorado,…
Super Dark Times (2017): Dir. Kevin Phillips
Feat. Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino…; An indie psychological thriller that deftly detours from a benign coming–of–age scenario when a traumatic after–school incident…
This Country (TV Series) (2017): Feat. Daisy May, Charlie Cooper; A British mockumentary sitcom about the day–to–day lives of two young people living in a small village in the Cotswolds. Created by,…
Transfiguration, The (2017): Dir. Michael O’Shea
Feat. Eric Ruffin; An elevated genre film dealing with love and loss about a troubled teen with a vampire lore fascination who meets an equally alienated young woman…
Allegiant (2016): Dir. Robert Schwentke
Feat. Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels…; Third in the Divergent series sees Shailene Woodley's Tris trying frantically to escape with Four beyond the wall that encircles Chicago, to finally…
American Honey (2016): Dir. Andrea Arnold
Feat. Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough…; Esteemed British director Andrea Arnold changes pace in her American debut, taking a cast of mostly non–actors through a poetically…
Edge of Seventeen (2016): Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
Feat. Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner…; Candid and humourous coming–of–age drama where an awkward seventeen year old comes to terms with her all–star older brother dating…
Emo the Musical (2016): Dir. Neil Triffett
Feat. Benson Jack Anthony; Unashamedly cliched adolescent angst musical, developed from Australian writer–director Neil Triffitt's 16–minute short. A suicidal emo…
Handsome Devil (2016): Dir. John Butler
Feat. Fionn O’Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott; This sweet and amiable Irish coming–of–age story in which a loner and the star athlete at a rugby–mad boarding school become…
Jasper Jones (2016): Dir. Rachel Perkins
Feat. Levi Miller, Aaron L. McGrath, Angourie Rice…; A nostalgic portrait of Australian childhood in the summer of '69 that tells the story of a bookish boy who finds himself caught up in a local murder…
Land of the Enlightened, The (2016): Dir. Pieter-Jan de Pue; A creative documentary hybrid, which stages facts and fantasy side by side to reveal an intimate and poetic portrait of Afghanistan. Reminiscent of…
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016): Dir. Steve Carr
Feat. Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham, Alexa Nisenson; Spirited comedy about a semi–introverted, imaginative teen who takes glorious revenge on the draconian school system by attempting to break…
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016): Dir. Tim Burton
Feat. Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson…; Tim Burton's spectacular adaptation of the young adult fantasy novel about a teenager who discovers a portal to a different time in coastal Wales…
Stranger Things (TV Series) (2016): Feat. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard…; A web television series phenomenon that pays hefty homage to the tropes and aesthetics of sci–fi adventure and horror film of the 1980s and the…
Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) (2015): Dir. Eva Husson
Feat. Finnegan Oldfield; A refreshingly non–judgemental account of female promiscuity, following a group of adolescents in a sleepy French town who start a sex party…
Breaking a Monster (2015): Dir. Luke Meyer; Chronicle of the break–out year of the black heavy metal band "Unlocking the Truth" that follows 13–year–old members Alec Atkins,…
Diary of a Teenage Girl, The (2015): Dir. Marielle Heller
Feat. Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig…; This brave and bittersweet portrait of an unusual sexual awakening has Bel Powley as a fledgling cartoonist entering into a relationship with her…
Downriver (2015): Dir. Grant Scicluna
Feat. Reef Ireland, Kerry Fox, Robert Taylor…; Arresting, but undeniably downbeat character study that follows a teenager freshly released from juvenile prison as he attempts to adjust to life on…
DUFF, The (2015): Dir. Ari Sandel
Feat. Mae Whitman, Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell…; Smart teen comedy about a high school senior who instigates a social pecking order revolution after finding out that she has been labeled the DUFF…
Girl Asleep (2015): Dir. Rosemary Myers
Feat. Bethany Whitmore, Harrison Feldman, Amber McMahon; Based on the theatre production, this colourful coming–of–age tale set in 1970’s Australia expressively journeys into the absurd, scary…
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015): Dir. Francis Lawrence
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth…; Satisfying conclusion to the dystopian series has Katniss reunite with her friends as the war of Panem escalates.
Insurgent (2015): Dir. Robert Schwentke
Feat. Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Theo James…; Shailene Woodley returns in this second part of the dystopian teen trilogy and continues her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to…
Jem and The Holograms (2015): Dir. Jon M. Chu
Feat. Stefanie Scott, Aurora Perrineau, Hayley Kiyoko…; Live–action update of the popular '80's cartoon about a small–town girl who catapults from underground video sensation to global…
Landfill Harmonic (2015): Dir. Brad Allgood, Graham Townsley; Documentary portrait of Paraguayan music teacher Fabio Chavez and his Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a children's orchestra which performs with…
Mask You Live In, The (2015): Dir. Jennifer Siebel Newsom; Seeking to inspire a society to raise a healthier generation of boys and young men, this cogent documentary identifies the pervasive cultural and…
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015): Dir. Wes Ball
Feat. Dylan O‘Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster…; Second entry in the dystopian adventure series picks up where its predecessor left off. Having escaped the Maze, the Gladers uncover a diabolical…
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015): Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Feat. Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke…; Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, this imaginative, eclectic dramedy follows an awkward high–school filmmaker and a gravely ill…
Paper Towns (2015): Dir. Jake Schreier
Feat. Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams…; From the pen of John Green, the writer of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, comes a wistful teen adventure in which a boy and his friends search for his…
Sucker (2015): Dir. Ben Chessell
Feat. Lawrence Leung, Timothy Spall, Lily Sullivan; Comedian Lawrence Leung co–writes and stars in this colourful comedy about a teenager who after destroying his med school prospects falls in…
Testament of Youth (2015): Dir. James Kent
Feat. Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington, Taron Egerton…; Vera Brittain's acclaimed coming–of–age memoir is given the cinematic treatment in this fine adaptation, with Alicia Vikander (EX…
100, The (TV Series) (2014): Feat. Eliza Taylor; A hodgepodge of sci–fi tropes crowd this youth–oriented post–apocalyptic drama about 100 teenagers who are sent back to earth to…
Crow's Egg, The (Kaakkaa Muttai) (2014): Dir. M. Manikandan
Feat. Ramesh , J. Vignesh, Iyshwarya Rajesh; Affecting Tamil comedy set in a Chennai slum follows two mischievous and resourceful brothers as they witness the opening of a local pizza shop, and…
Dark Horse, The (2014): Dir. James Napier Robertson
Feat. Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torrance…; Cliff Curtis turns in a magnificent performance in this accomplished and powerful story of speed chess champion Genesis Potini, his battles with…
Dear White People (2014): Dir. Justin Simien
Feat. Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner…; A social satire that follows the stories of four black students at an Ivy League college where controversy breaks out over a popular but offensive…
Divergent (2014): Dir. Neil Burger
Feat. Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd…; Shailene Woodley plays a 'divergent', a personality type marked for elimination in this dystopian thriller based on Veronica Roth's bestselling young…
Endless Love (2014): Dir. Shana Feste
Feat. Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood…; Petty–ful remake of the Brooke Shields weepie about young love suppressed by disapproving parents.
Falling, The (2014): Dir. Carol Morley
Feat. Maxine Peake, Maisie Williams, Florence Pugh…; Spellbinding British drama set in a girl's boarding school overcome by a mysterious fainting epidemic amongst the pupils. Ambitious and intriguing…
Fault in Our Stars, The (2014): Dir. Josh Boone
Feat. Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff…; A pair of offbeat teengers – one terminally ill – embrace the journey of life in this sweeping teen romance based on John Green's popular…
Generation Like (2014): Top quality and highly topical PBS documentary which posits the question "Are kids using social media or is social media using kids?" to explore the…
Honeytrap (2014): Dir. Rebecca Johnson
Feat. Jessica Sula, Lucien Laviscount, Ntonga Mwanza; Based on a true story, this London set drama tells the tale of a teenage girl who lures a lovestruck admirer in a brutal trap set by gang members.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014): Dir. Francis Lawrence
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth…; Third in the series finds Katniss in District 13 fighting to save Peeta who is now a brainwashed captive of President Snow.
If I Stay (2014): Dir. R.J. Cutler
Feat. Chloe Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley…; Soapy teen drama with Chloe Moretz as a young woman in a coma who must decide whether to wake up, and live a life far different than she had…
Inbetweeners 2, The (2014): Dir. Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
Feat. Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison…; Sex–crazed larrikins Jay, Simon, Neil and Will reunite for a holiday downunder in this typically puerile sequel to the movie inspired by the…
Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) (2014): Dir. Thomas Cailley
Feat. Adele Haenel, Kevin Azais, Antoine Laurent…; An intensely physical take on the romantic comedy, with an awkward summer romance taking place at a French survivalist camp between a…
Maze Runner, The (2014): Dir. Wes Ball
Feat. Dylan O‘Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter…; Post–apocalyptic thriller with teenage boys battling for survival in an enclosed maze.
Men, Women and Children (2014): Dir. Jason Reitman
Feat. Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner…; Topical drama concerning a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their…
Ouija (2014): Dir. Stiles White
Feat. Olivia Cooke, Daren Kagasoff, Ana Coto…; Much–maligned supernatural horror film about a group of non–too–bright teenagers who unleash unfriendly spirits from a Ouija…
Ping Pong Summer (2014): Dir. Michael Tully
Feat. Marcello Conte, John Hannah, Lea Thompson…; A sweet 80's nostalgia film that follows a shy 13–year–old whose obsessions with ping pong and hip hop bring him out of his shell while…
Project Almanac (2014): Dir. Dean Israelite
Feat. Amy Landecker, Sofia Black-D'Elia, Jonny Weston; Time–travel adventure with a group of teens discovering secret plans of a time machine, and constructing one. However, things start to get out…
Riot Club, The (2014): Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Douglas Booth…; Two first–year students at Oxford University join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of a…
Robot Overlords (2014): Dir. Jon Wright
Feat. Ben Kingsley, Gillian Anderson, Callan McAuliffe…; Cheap and cheerful sci–fi set in a world overrun by robots from another galaxy Earth's future is in the hand of a small band of rebellious…
Trash (2014): Dir. Stephen Daldry
Feat. Rooney Mara, Martin Sheen, Wagner Moura…; From the unlikely pen of Brit rom–com supremo Richard Curtis comes this crime comedy set in Rio de Janeiro in which three kids who make a…
White Bird in a Blizzard (2014): Dir. Gregg Araki
Feat. Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni…; Icy youth drama set follows a teenage girl's life as its thrown into chaos after the disappearance of her mother.
X + Y (X and Y, aka A Brilliant Young Mind ) (2014): Dir. Morgan Matthews
Feat. Asa Butterfield, Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan…; Asa Butterfield (HUGO) plays a socially awkward teenage math prodigy who finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British…
21 and Over (2013): Dir. Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Feat. Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon…; Essentially a rehash of THE HANGOVER for the college set, this routine campus comedy follows the misadventures of an Asian super student whose 21st…
52 Tuesdays (2013): Dir. Sophie Hyde
Feat. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Del Herbert-Jane; A teenage girl explores her own sexuality as her mother undergoes gender transition in this moving Australian drama, shot over a year of Tuesdays.
A Birder's Guide to Everything (2013): Dir. Rob Meyer
Feat. Kodi Smit-McPhee, James Le Gros, Katie Chang…; A lovely, heartfelt teen movie about a nerdy 15–year–old birding fanatic (Smit–McPhee) who retreats with his friends on a bird…
A Story of Children and Film (2013): Dir. Mark Cousins; Film essayist Mark Cousins offers this edifying "mosaic" of films about childhood and their representation of children across various states of being…
Around the Block (2013): Dir. Sarah Spillane
Feat. Christina Ricci, Daniel Henshall, Jack Thompson…; Christina Ricci plays a tough but compassionate teacher working in Sydney's Redfern suburb who is drawn to a troubled aboriginal student with a…
Bling Ring, The (2013): Dir. Sofia Coppola
Feat. Emma Watson, Katie Chang, Israel Broussard…; Sophia Coppola directs this self–aware drama based on the true story of a group of fame–obsessed teenagers who use the internet to track…
Carrie (2013): Dir. Kimberly Peirce
Feat. Julianne Moore, Chloe Grace Moretz, Portia Doubleday…; Though strictly serviceable as a horror film, BOYS DON'T CRY director Kimberly Peirce brings an intense focus on character, psychology and social…
G.B.F (GBF) (2013): Dir. Darren Stein
Feat. Michael J. Willett, Paul Iacono, Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque…; This fun, all–knowing skewering of teen social dynamics centres on a recently outed high–schooler who is adopted by a pack of alpha…
Generation War (TV Mini-Series) (2013): Feat. Volker Bruch, Miriam Stein, Ludwig Trepte…; Hugely popular in Germany this mini–series examines the second World War from the German perspective. Told through the eyes of five friends as…
Geography Club (2013): Dir. Gary Entin
Feat. Cameron Deane Stewart, Meaghan Martin, Justin Deeley; A sweet–centred dramedy of queer coming–of–age, focused on a teenager whose struggle with sexuality is comforted after he joins an…
Host, The (2013): Dir. Andrew Niccol
Feat. Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Max Irons; Saoirse Ronan plays a young woman who is taken possession of by a sympathetic alien host in the science–fiction romance from the pen of…
How I Live Now (2013): Dir. Kevin MacDonald
Feat. Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, George MacKay…; This edgy young–adult fantasy finds teenager Saoirse Ronan, sent to the English countryside to stay with relatives, coping with the outbreak of…
Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013): Dir. Francis Lawrence
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson…; The victors of the Hunger Games must rally at the threat of an uprising in this blockbuster sequel to Suzanne Collins's best–selling young…
Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete, The (2013): Dir. George Tillman Jr.
Feat. Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jennifer Hudson…; Two Brooklyn adolescents must fend for themselves when their hard–living mother is taken into police custody in this moving tragidrama.
InRealLife (In Real Life) (2013): Dir. Beeban Kidron; A revealing journey from the bedrooms of British teenagers to the world of Silicon Valley, examining the impact of the internet on the youth of today.
Kings of Summer, The (Toy's House) (2013): Dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Feat. Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias…; A lyrical and sharp–witted coming–of–age drama about three teenage friends, who in the ultimate act of independence, decide to…
Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013): Dir. Harald Zwart
Feat. Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers…; A teenage girl joins a league of demon slayers in this dark New York–set fantasy, another epic tween franchise in the making. Based on the…
Nowhere Boys (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Darci McDonald, Dougie Baldwin, Joel Lok…; Australian fantasy action–adventure series that follows four teenage boys who get lost in the forest and discover, when they return home, that…
Originals, The (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies, Claire Holt…; Spin–off of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES branches out the family tree of vamps and werewolves from small town Virginia to New Orleans. Season One: 22…
Palo Alto (2013): Dir. Gia Coppola
Feat. Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, James Franco…; A languid look at the lives and illicit loves of a group of Californian teens approaching the end of their time at high school.
Paradise: Hope (Paradise Hope) (2013): Dir. Ulrich Seidl
Feat. Melanie Lenz, Joseph Lorenz; Austrian provocateur Ulrich Seidl dispatches a typically unvarnished portrait of institutional ritual with this concluding chapter to his PARADISE…
Selfish Giant, The (2013): Dir. Clio Barnard
Feat. Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas; A pair of 13–year–olds become involved in the dealings of a scrap yard owner in this vivid working class drama.
Short Term 12 (2013): Dir. Destin Cretton
Feat. Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Stephanie Beatriz…; A counselor at a foster–care facility for at–risk teenagers struggles with her own troubled past as a youngster in this tough but tender…
Spectacular Now, The (2013): Dir. James Ponsoldt
Feat. Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson…; This wistful teen romance, scripted and performed with a bracing naturalism, centres on a glibly charming high school senior whose casual dating of a…
We Are the Best (Vi är bäst!) (2013): Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Feat. Mira Grosin, Mira Barkhammar, Liv LeMoyne; Endearing portrait of teenage experimentation set in early '80s Stockholm where two decidedly unmusical 13–year–old girls decide to form…
Weight of Elephants, The (2013): Dir. Daniel Borgman
Feat. Demos Murphy, Angelina Cottrell, Matthew Sunderland; Operating on a deep level, Daniel Borgman’s [debut] film prioritises what goes on under the surface almost to the complete exclusion of plot.…
After May (Something in the Air) (2012): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Lola Créton, Clément Métayer; Hatched from dir. Olivier Assayas' personal experiences, this bittersweet evocation of the leftist fervour that caught hold of young Europeans in the…
Breaking the Girls (2012): Dir. Jamie Babbitt
Feat. Agnes Bruckner, Madeline Zima, Shawn Ashmore…; Teen variation on STRANGERS ON A TRAIN with two college students agreeing to murder each others enemies.
Chronicle (2012): Dir. Josh Trank
Feat. Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan…; Amping up the 'found–footage' concept to even dizzier heights than CLOVERFIELD, this fantasy has three teens running amok after acquiring…
Foxfire (2012): Dir. Laurent Cantet
Feat. Raven Adamson, Katie Coseni; From a Joyce Carol Oates story, Laurent Cantet (THE CLASS) directs this plucky period drama of a girl gang who rally against male oppression in 1950s…
Ginger & Rosa (Ginger and Rosa) (2012): Dir. Sally Potter
Feat. Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Christina Hendricks…; Two London teenagers explore rebellion, activism, and the limits of their friendship in this evocative coming–of–age drama from dir.…
Girl In Progress (2012): Dir. Patricia Riggen
Feat. Eva Mendes, Matthew Modine, Cierra Ramirez; Comedy following a Hispanic single mother (Eva Mendes) raising a precocious teenager who wants to grow up fast, and decides to tick off all the…
Hunger Games, The (2012): Dir. Gary Ross
Feat. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth…; A 16–year–old girl must compete in a televised tournament in which 24 teenagers from a post–apocalyptic society fight to the death…
LOL (2012): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Miley Cyrus, Demi Moore, Jean-Luc Bilodeau…; Perfunctory remake of the hit French teen comedy casts Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus as lovelorn mother and daughter in the social media age.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012): Dir. Wes Anderson
Feat. Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis…; Wes Anderson's latest exquisite comedy, about two 12–year–olds in 1960s New England who consummate their adolescent romance by running…
Perks of Being a Wallflower, The (2012): Dir. Stephen Chbosky
Feat. Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller…; An introverted teen with a troubled past is embraced by an eccentric clique of friends in this deeply–felt coming–of–age drama,…
Project X (2012): Dir. Nima Nourizadeh
Feat. Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown; Teen hedonism is taken to its mindless extreme in this unredeemable 'comedy' about an epic house party gone too far. Those expecting the endearing…
Puberty Blues (TV Series) (2012): Feat. Claudia Karvan, Ashleigh Cummings, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor; Two inseparable teenage girls growing up on the beaches of Cronulla come of age in this acclaimed TV adaptation of the seminal late 70s Australian…
Spring Breakers (2012): Dir. Harmony Korine
Feat. Selena Gomez, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Benson…; "Disney Gone Wild" is the catchall for this fleshy coed drama from enfant terrible Harmony Korine, about four spring–breaking girls who become…
Step Up 4: Miami Heat (Step Up Revolution) (2012): Dir. Scott Speer
Feat. Ryan Guzman, Cleopatra Coleman; The latest step down sees a young couple, who lead a dance crew in elaborate flash mobs "turn their performance art into protest art" when a wealthy…
Tiger Eyes (2012): Dir. Lawrence Blume
Feat. Willa Holland, Cynthia Stevenson, Tatanka Means…; This sensitively observed teen drama – the first ever screen adaptation of a Judy Blume novel – centres on a 17–year–old girl…
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012): Dir. Bill Condon
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner…; Finally, the colossal vampire franchise meets its maker with this concluding chapter, with Bella and Edward fighting to protect their daughter from…
Wadjda (2012): Dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour
Feat. Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah; This humanist triumph is the first ever feature to be shot in Saudi Arabia, centering on a plucky young girl who attempts to raise money for a…
We and the I, The (2012): Dir. Michel Gondry
Feat. Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Raymond Delgado; Michel Gondry masters the docu–drama narrative with surprising ease, here directing an affecting and unsentimental look at a bus full of Bronx…
What Richard Did (2012): Dir. Lenny Abrahamson
Feat. Jack Reynor, Róisín Murphy, Sam Keeley…; Understated but highly compelling moral drama in which an exemplary teenager experiences a fall from grace after an impulsive incident at a college…
Art of Getting By, The (2011): Dir. Gavin Wiesen
Feat. Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano…; A sensitive and even–handed coming–of–age tale about a teenage fatalist and his blooming friendship with the popular…
Attack the Block (2011): Dir. Joe Cornish
Feat. Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail…; A gang of teenage delinquents rally to defend their tower block from alien invaders in this quick–witted urban sci–fi comedy that…
Awkward (TV Series) (2011): Feat. Ashley Rickards, Beau Mirchoff, Nikki Deloach; An unpopular 15 year old gains immediate, yet unwanted, popularity at her high school when the student body mistakes an accident she has for a…
Back to Stay (2011): Dir. Milagros Mumenthaler
Feat. María Canale, Martina Juncadella , Ailín Salas…; A spare, melancholic film that languidly reveals its narrative secrets as three bickering sisters clash in their neglected Buenos Aires family…
Bombay Beach (2011): Dir. Alma Har’el; Hypnotic and highly innovative documentary about a ghost town on the Salton Sea in Southern California, which is home to a failed 1950's development…
Bully (2011): Dir. Lee Hirsch; A shattering documentary on the difficult social problem of bullying, which gives a voice to the victims who suffer repeated physical and verbal…
Fades, The (TV Series) (2011): Feat. Iain de Caestecker, Joe Dempsie, Natalie Dormer…; Adventurous BBC supernatural thriller concerns the apocalyptic visions of an English teenager, who comes to learn that the dead spirits only he can…
Geek Charming (2011): Dir. Jeffrey Hornaday
Feat. Sarah Hyland, Matt Prokop; Glossy Disney comedy based on the novel by Robin Palmer in which a film nerd makes a documentary about the life of his classmate, the school diva.
Giants, The (2011): Dir. Bouli Lanners
Feat. Zacharie Chasseriaud, Martin Nissen, Paul Bartel; The misadventures of two teenage brothers and a local misfit are engagingly recounted in this balmy Belgium picaresque.
I Am Number Four (2011): Dir. D. J. Caruso
Feat. Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, Timothy Olyphant…; Youthful sci–fi thriller centred on a teenage fugitive who, in hiding from mysterious forces, settles in a small Ohio town.
I Wish (2011): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Koki Maeda, Ohshiro Maeda, Yui Natsukawa…; Two brothers living in different cities because of their parents' separation conspire to reunite them through a mythical 'wish' in this delicate,…
Inbetweeners Movie, The (2011): Dir. Ben Palmer
Feat. Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison…; The roguish foursome of the hit British TV series celebrate the end of the their school days in this satisfying gag–fueled finale high on sex,…
Jess + Moss (Jess and Moss) (2011): Dir. Clay Jeter
Feat. Sarah Hagan, Austin Vickers, Haley Parker; Impressionistic portrait of two young teens spending one last summer wandering through the fields of Kentucky. Unconventional approach to narrative…
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011): Dir. Jon M. Chu
Feat. Justin Bieber; Boy idol of–the–moment, Justin Bieber, swoons for the female teen age populous in this slick marketing package of concert performances…
Like Crazy (2011): Dir. Drake Doremus
Feat. Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence; Not to be mistaken for another Nicholas Sparks spin–off, this poignant, intelligently crafted indie romance intimately examines the young love…
Mrs. Carey's Concert (2011): Dir. Bob Connolly, Sophie Raymond; Invigorating doco on the power of music. At a Sydney girl's school, Mrs Carey butts head with her obstinate students as they prepare for a…
Play (2011): Dir. Ruben Östlund; Ruban Östlund (THE SQUARE) directs this acute observation of bullying based on true events, in which a group of adolescent boys robbed other…
Prom (2011): Dir. Joe Nussbaum
Feat. Aimee Teegarden, Thomas McDonell, DeVaughn Nixon…; Cheerful teen comedy follows a high school president who scrambles to save the prom after an act of vandalism.
Restless (2011): Dir. Gus Van Sant
Feat. Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Ryo Kase…; Languid tween romance from dir. Gus Van Sant, about a terminally ill girl (Wasikowska) who falls in love with an eccentric boy with a compulsion for…
Skins (TV Series, US) (2011): Feat. James Newman, Sofia Black-D'Elia; Produced by MTV, this gritty stateside remake of the hit Brit series translates the angst and attitude of the modern teen experience for US audiences…
Super 8 (2011): Dir. J.J. Abrams
Feat. Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths…; A young group of film–loving friends witness a train crash and suspect it was not an accident and their suspicions are fueled by a series of…
This is England '88 (TV Mini-Series) (2011): Dir. Shane Meadows
Feat. Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley…; A further set of adventures for Shane Meadows's unforgettable cast of lapsed skinheads, here still struggling to find a foothold as young adults…
Turn Me On, Goddamit! (2011): Dir. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Feat. Helene Bergsholm, Beate Stofring, Malin Bjorhovde; Deadpan sex comedy in a sleepy Norwegian hamlet with a hormone ravaged teen determined to lose her virginity.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011): Dir. Bill Condon
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner…; Penultimate installment of the Gothic fantasy phenomenon teases out the conclusion to the romantic saga in lucrative and popular fashion with Bella…
Wunderkinder (2011): Dir. Markus Rosenmüller
Feat. Gedeon Burkhard, Natalia Avelon; A history of Germany in broad strokes, this heartrending coming–of–age tale charts the upheaval of WWII through the eyes of three child…
Boy (2010): Dir. Taika Waititi
Feat. Taika Waititi, James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu…; Taika Waititi continues his dream run as director with this fictionalised coming–of–age tale that draws on his own experience growing up…
Daydream Nation (2010): Dir. Michael Goldbach
Feat. Kat Dennings, Reece Thompson, Andie MacDowell…; A daydreaming 17–year–old (Dennings) seduces a high school teacher for kicks, only to attract the attention of a lovesick stoner…
Dirty Girl (2010): Dir. Abe Sylvia
Feat. Juno Temple, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam…; A high school hussy and an overweight closet homosexual become fast friends in this sassy teen comedy. Though overly weighted in cliche and narrow…
Dog Pound (2010): Dir. Kim Chapiron
Feat. Adam Butcher, Shane Kippel, Mateo Morales…; Depressing drama set in a youth correctional facility follows three troubled teens as they struggle to adapt to life behind bars. Owing a large…
Easy A (2010): Dir. Will Gluck
Feat. Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes…; Sassy reinterpretation of 'The Scarlet Letter' stars Emma Stone as a high school nobody who fakes losing her virginity to advance her social…
Expecting Mary (2010): Dir. Dan Gordon
Feat. Olesya Rulin, Elliott Gould, Linda Gray…; Good–natured road movie tale with a pregnant teenager heading to California in search of her father, but who she encounters along the way will…
Heartbeats (2010): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Xavier Dolan, Niels Schneider, Monia Chokri; A quick turnaround for precocious French Canadian dir. Xavier Dolan; his sophomore feature an equally painful and amusing bifurcated romance, in…
Lost Kisses (I baci mai dati) (2010): Dir. Roberta Torre
Feat. Carla Marchese, Donatella Finocchiaro; A 13–year–old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word…
Martino's Summer (L'estate di Martino) (2010): Dir. Massimo Natale
Feat. Treat Williams; Italian drama set in the summer of 1980 and following the adventures of a 15 year old boy, who has a romance with a girl from the North, and learns…
Monga: Gangs of Taipei (Báng-kah) (2010): Dir. Doze Niu
Feat. Ching-Tien Juan, Mark Chao, Ju-Lung Ma; Pungent youth drama set in 1980s Taiwan, after the end of military dictatorship, concerns the intertwined fate of five troubled friends.
Myth of the American Sleepover, The (2010): Dir. David Robert Mitchell
Feat. Claire Soma, Marlon Morton, Amanda Bauer…; A balmy summer night before the start of high school is the backdrop for this languid, moment–to–moment capsule of life as an idle…
Neds (2010): Dir. Peter Mullan
Feat. Connor McCarron; Dark coming–of–age story where a promising young student becomes dangerously entwined in Glasgow's violent gangland. Director Peter…
Nightmare on Elm Street, A (2010): Dir. Samuel Bayer
Feat. Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Clancy Brown…; Stylish, shallow reworking of the classic 80s slasher movie (replete with a music video director at the helm) reins in the smirk and aims for a…
Norman (2010): Dir. Jonathan Segal
Feat. Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Richard Jenkins…; A melancholy high school 'indie' about a teenage loner who claims his father's terminal cancer as his own in order to make tracks with a pretty…
Politically Incorrect Guide to Teenagers, The (2010): The irreverent and provocative Nigel Latta returns with advice on how parents can navigate the pitfalls of raising teenagers.
Pretty Little Liars (TV Series) (2010): Feat. Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell…; An interesting blend of GOSSIP GIRL antics, VERONICA MARS intrigue, and light supernatural themes, this young adult series revolves four teenage…
Remember Me (2010): Dir. Allen Coulter
Feat. Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper…; Two tissue weepy with Robert Pattinson giving great brood as a troubled youth who tentatively finds love with a girl with a tragic past. Standard…
Runaways, The (2010): Dir. Floria Sigismondi
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon…; A high–strung, hell–for–leather rock movie based on the short–lived exploits of pioneering girl band The Runaways and their…
SoulBoy (2010): Dir. Shimmy Marcus
Feat. Martin Compston, Felicity Jones, Alfie Allen…; Hip–shaking youth drama set amongst the Northern Soul scene of the 1970's in which a frustrated teenager experiences a musical awakening while…
Step Up 3 (Step Up 3-D) (2010): Dir. Jon Chu
Feat. Rick Malambri, Adam G. Sevani, Sharni Vinson…; Hormonal third entry in the back–popping dance series has a tight–knit group of street dancers pitted against the world's best…
Streetdance (2010): Dir. Max Giwa
Feat. Charlotte Rampling; The worlds of street dance and ballet collide in this sassy British take on the dance movie genre. While training for the UK Championships, a…
This is England '86 (TV Mini-Series) (2010): Dir. Tom Harper, Shane Meadows
Feat. Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley…; The core cast of THIS IS ENGLAND return for this vivid small screen epilogue set three years later, where a maturing Shaun (Turgoose) must negotiate…
Trust (2010): Dir. David Schwimmer
Feat. Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Liana Liberato…; Pungent social drama with Keener and Owen as parents dealing with the aftermath of their teenage daughter's rape at the hands of an online…
Twilight: Eclipse (2010): Dir. David Slade
Feat. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner…; Torrid third installment in the saga has Bella forced to choose between Edward and Jacob as a series of mysterious killings grip Seattle.
Wasted on the Young (2010): Dir. Ben C. Lucas
Feat. Oliver Ackland, Adelaide Clemens, Alex Russell…; Potent teen thriller, stylishly directed by first–timer Lucas, has a party getting out of hand an triggering a wave of revenge acts.
17 Again (2009): Dir. Burr Steers
Feat. Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann; Time–twisting comedy in which washed–up middle–ager Matthew Perry gets another chance when he is miraculously turned back into his…
Accidents Happen (2009): Dir. Andrew Lancaster
Feat. Geena Davis, Harrison Gilbertson, Harry Cook…; Earnest dramedy enlivened by a sensationally brash Geena Davis performance. Davis plays the mother of a deeply dysfunctional family who's lives are…
Adventureland (2009): Dir. Greg Mottola
Feat. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds…; Low–key indie comedy set in 1987 where a virginal high–school grad gets a summer job at a local amusement park and finds unlikely…
An Education (2009): Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina…; An assured and alluring coming–of–age drama set in swinging sixties London (1961 in fact), with teenage ingenue Carey Mulligan falling in…
Cherrybomb (2009): Dir. Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn
Feat. Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan, James Nesbitt…; Rupert Grint plays against type in this edgy youth drama in which three teenagers go on a wild weekend of drink, drugs, shop–lifting and…
Dare (2009): Dir. Adam Salky
Feat. Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Alan Cumming…; A drama centered around three high school seniors – an aspiring actress, her misfit best friend, and a loner – who become engaged in an…
Dear Lemon Lima (2009): Dir. Suzi Yoonessi
Feat. Savanah Wiltfong, Shayne Topp, Eleanor Hutchins…; Sweetly spun tale of a teen outcast who after experiencing rejection from her high–school crush sets out to find like–minded individuals.
Fish Tank (2009): Dir. Andrea Arnold
Feat. Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing…; Full of colourful profanity and hefty doses of working–class belligerence, this assured drama centres around a 15–year–old…
French Kissers, The (Les Beaux Gosses) (2009): Dir. Riad Sattouf
Feat. Vincent Lacoste, Anthony Sonigo, Alice Trémolière…; Gallic hormonal comedy about two unkempt, sex–obsessed adolescents and their wavering exploits with the school's most popular girl. Is quite…
Go Girls (TV Series) (2009): Feat. Anna Hutchison, Bronwyn Turei, Alix Bushnell…; A North Shore equivalent of OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE perhaps, but with considerably less bite, this follows four middle–class 20–somethings as…
Greatest, The (2009): Dir. Shana Feste
Feat. Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan…; Emotive drama of a family trying to cope with the sudden death of their teenage son and the troubled young woman who enters their life.
Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009): Dir. Peter Chelsom
Feat. Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment…; Musical spin–off of wholesome kids series Hannah Montana sees Miley 'Stewart' (Cyrus) escape to her hometown in Tennessee in order to escape…
High School Revolution (The Trotsky) (2009): Dir. Jacob Tierney
Feat. Jay Baruchel, Domini Blythe, Emily Hampshire…; Smart teen comedy with Baruchel taking the lead as an intensely politicised high–schooler convinced he's the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) (2009): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément…; An angst ridden teen grapples with growing up gay and his neurotic, overbearing mother in this feisty first feature from young French Canadian…
I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009): Dir. Chris Columbus
Feat. Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack Carpenter; Uneven high school comedy sees a nerd publicly profess his love for the hottest girl in school, only to have her turn up at his doorstep that night…
Jennifer's Body (2009): Dir. Karyn Kusama
Feat. Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons…; The screenwriter of JUNO brings her distinctive, know–it–all style to this high–school horror–comedy, in which the sultry…
Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience (2009): Dir. Bruce Hendricks
Feat. Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas; Tween pop phenomenon The Jonas Brothers perform their 'Burning Up' concert, coupled with documentary footage of their daily lives. For those not…
Misfits (TV Series) (2009): Feat. Robert Sheehan, Antonia Thomas, Lauren Socha…; "SKINS meets HEROES" is the catch–cry for this Bafta Award winning, streetwise drama about five teenagers stuck in community service, where…
My Suicide (2009): Dir. David Lee Miller
Feat. Gabriel Sunday, David Carradine, Mariel Hemingway…; A disaffected teenager announces that he intends to document his impending suicide on camera in this heavy handed, if potent youth indie. Built on…
Mystery Team (2009): Dir. Dan Eckman
Feat. Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes…; Goofy comedy with three high school nerds masquerading as detectives who find themselves investigating a murder. Hit–and–miss comedy…
Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (2009): Dir. Lee Daniels
Feat. Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique , Paula Patton…; Heated ghetto drama puts a hopeful spin on the despair suffered by an illiterate, overweight teenager who prepares to give birth to her second child…
Spectacular! (2009): Dir. Robert Iscove
Feat. Nolan Gerard Funk, Tammin Sursok, Victoria Justice; Hardly spectacular but decent showbiz musical based around a high school 'show choir' who recruit a reluctant wannabe rocker to help them win a…
Trouble is My Business (2009): Dir. Juliette Veber; Keenly observational documentary about an empathetic assistant principal (Gary Peach) who battles to keep his students in school and out of trouble…
Twilight: New Moon (2009): Dir. Chris Weitz
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson…; Succulent second helping of the Stephanie Meyer vampire saga finds pasty Edward no longer able to protect his beloved Bella, fleeing the country and…
Vampire Diaries, The (TV Series) (2009): Feat. Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder; The TWILIGHT zeitgeist is vamped up as a 90210–style serial in this melodramatic teen soap, about a troubled girl torn between her brooding…
Whatever! The Science Of Teens (2009): Dir. Anne Delaney; Enlightening doco series examining teenagers and their odd behaviour through observation and scientific testing. Often hilarious, this requires you…
Youth in Revolt (2009): Dir. Miguel Arteta
Feat. Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Zach Galifianakis…; Perfectly typecast, Michael Cera plays an adorable, sexually–frustrated "nice guy" who invents a trouble–making alter ego –…
5 Centimetres Per Second (Five Centimetres Per Second) (2008): Dir. Makoto Shinkai; Sublimely romantic animated feature divided into three separate episodes tracing the emotional journey of a teenage boy through to manhood, and the…
90210 (TV Series) (2008): Feat. Rob Estes, Shenae Grimes, AnnaLynne McCord…; This updating of the popular '90's show brings the bling as more photogenic rich kids contend with regular problems.
Adulthood (2008): Dir. Noel Clarke
Feat. Noel Clarke; Unimaginatively titled, so–so sequel to KIDULTHOOD taking place six years on from the first film with our main protagonist Sam Peel released…
Afterschool (2008): Dir. Antonio Campos
Feat. Ezra Miller, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jeremy Allen White…; Ezra Miller (WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN) plays a closed–off teenager whose difficult high school experience is complicated when he captures…
American Mall (2008): Dir. Shawn Ku
Feat. Nina Dobrey, Autumn Reeser, Rob Mayes; Fluffy teen pop–fest set in a mall concerns the budding romance between two mall denizens – an aspiring singer/songwriter and a janitor…
American Teen (2008): Dir. Nanette Burstein
Feat. Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Geoff Haase…; An intimate and often hilarious doco that was a surprise Sundance Festival hit that follows four high school seniors – 'the jock', 'the arsty…
Assassination Of A High School President (2008): Dir. Brett Simon
Feat. Mischa Barton, Reece Thompson, Bruce Willis…; A high–school reporter investigating the disappearance of missing exam papers uncovers a wider conspiracy in this smart, teen riff on CHINATOWN.
Bart Got a Room (2008): Dir. Brian Hecker
Feat. William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines, Chad Jamian Williams…; Unusual teen comedy with school dweeb Kaplan desperate for a date to the prom and given that he's living in a retirement community his chances aren't…
Camp Rock (2008): Dir. Matthew Diamond
Feat. Demi Lovato; Latest kids musical flick from the Disney Channel focusing on a young girl with the opportunity to spend her summer at a top rock camp where she is…
Class, The (Entre les murs) (2008): Dir. Laurent Cantet
Feat. François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Angélica Sancio; This stimulating Palm d’Or winner engages with the toil and trouble of a multi–ethnic, inner–city French classroom, and the headstrong…
Clique, The (2008): Dir. Michael Lembeck
Feat. Elizabeth McLaughlin, Ellen Marlow, Samantha Boscarino…; Tepid high–school flick set around a group of rich New York kids who set out to destroy the 'new girl', only to discover she won't take their…
Dakota Skye (2008): Dir. John Humber
Feat. Eileen April Boylan, Ian Nelson, J. B. Ghuman Jr…; Novel teen drama has a unique twist on the jaded teen archetype with the film's titular heroine cursed with the ability to see through lies. Pic's…
Dead in 3 Days (Dead in Three Days) (2008): Dir. Andreas Prochaska; Chilling Austrian slasher involving a group of teenagers who must discover a serial killer’s identity in order to save themselves from getting…
Disappeared, The (2008): Dir. Johnny Kevorkian
Feat. Harry Treadaway, Greg Wise, Ros Leeming…; Restrained British chiller set on a London estate focuses on a young man's search for his missing younger brother. Impressive debut for dir.…
Donkey Punch (2008): Dir. Oliver Blackburn; Trendy, explicit youth horror centred on three holidaying gal pals whose wild night of sex and drugs with three guys on a yacht turns deadly when a…
Drillbit Taylor (2008): Dir. Steven Brill
Feat. Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Alex Frost; Teen comedy of comeuppance from the Rogen/Apatow hit factory (SUPERBAD/KNOCKED UP) focuses on a group of bullied high–schoolers who hire a…
Dustbin Baby (2008): Dir. Juliet May
Feat. Dakota Blue Richards, Juliet Stevenson, David Haig…; BBC drama based on Jacqueline Wilson's 2001 novel of the same name about the troubled life of a young girl (Dakota Blue Richards, THE GOLDEN COMPASS)…
Growing Up Online (2008): From the American public affairs series FRONTLINE comes this doco probing into the world of cyber–savvy teens, and the pressures that accompany…
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008): Dir. Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Feat. Kal Penn, John Cho; Asian/Indian douchbags Harold and Kumar, in search of another high, are arrested and detained in Guantanamo Bay for trying to smuggle a bong into…
Haunting Of Molly Hartley, The (2008): Dir. Mickey Liddell
Feat. Haley Bennett, Jake Weber, Chace Crawford; 17–year–old Molly Hartley begins to suffer odd symptoms of psychosis that foreshadow a sinister destiny in this ambitious horror, which…
Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger (2008): Dir. Cathy Randall
Feat. Keisha Castle-Hughes, Toni Collette, Danielle Catanzariti; Aussie coming–of–age comedy portraying a geeky social outcast encouraged to break away from her restrictive existence by a…
Honey (Bal) (2008): Dir. Semih Kaplanoglu
Feat. Bora Altas, Erdal Besikçioglu, Tülin Özen; A gorgeous, contemplative coming–of–age tale, centred on a young boy and his father, a rural beekeeper, in an idyllic mountainous region…
House Bunny, The (2008): Dir. Fred Wolf
Feat. Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Kiely Williams…; Anna Faris stars in this fluffy comedy as a fun–loving Playboy Bunny that gets booted out of the Mansion and finds herself a new home at a…
Inbetweeners, The (TV Series) (2008): Feat. Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison…; Acerbic comedy follows four gawky teenage boys growing up in suburbia experiencing the deep humiliations and relentless disappointments of late…
Keith (2008): Dir. Todd Kessler
Feat. Jesse McCartney, Elisabeth Harnois, Margo Harshman…; Efficient teen weepie with pop star McCartney as a rebel with a tragic secret and Harnois as the prim preppy who falls for his broody charms.
Kisses (2008): Dir. Lance Daly
Feat. Kelly O'Neill, Shane Curry; Two 12–year–old Irish runaways escape their bleak suburban existence and head to Dublin in this grim yet soulful adventure. Along the…
LOL (2008): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Christa Theret, Sophie Marceau; Sassy French comedy stars Sophie Marceau as the loving, long–suffering mother of a rebellious teen lass.
Lost Boys 2: The Tribe (2008): Dir. P.J. Pesce
Feat. Gabrielle Rose, Corey Feldman, Autumn Reeser…; Belated sequel to the 80's blood–letting hit THE LOST BOYS, this time set in a California surf Mecca where a brother and sister get unwittingly…
Newcastle (2008): Dir. Dan Castle
Feat. Xavier Samuel, Anthony Hayes, Shane Jacobson…; Sydney’s sun–baked north coast provides the backdrop for this visually dazzling surf movie, based around the male one–upmanship of…
Nick And Nora's Infinite Playlist (2008): Dir. Peter Sollett
Feat. Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Aaron Yoo; "Geeky Dreamboat" Michael Cera is typecast again in this pleasing but trifle indie flick centred around two high school seniors who bond over music…
Only (2008): Dir. Ingrid Veninger
Feat. Jacob Switzer, Elena Hudgins Lyle; Delicate Canadian coming–of–age drama focused around the relationship between two 12–year–olds who get to know one another…
Picture This (2008): Dir. Stephen Herek
Feat. Ashley Tisdale, Kevin Pollak, Robbie Amell; HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL brat Ashley Tisdale goes bad again for this teen romp, where she must get to a party at all costs despite being grounded. This…
Pictures of You (2008): Dir. Ben Woollen
Feat. Brendan Kavanagh, Jonn Wilson, Bernard Moody…; Youth drama concerning a promising rugby player whose dreams lie far away from the sporting field.
Prom Night (2008): Dir. Nelson McCormick
Feat. Idris Elba, Jessica Stroup, Johnathon Schaech; Lame duck remake of the 80's teen horror, with a picture perfect cast being chased around by a deranged killer on their…
Rocker, The (2008): Dir. Peter Cattaneo
Feat. Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Jane Lynch…; High energy comedy about a washed up rock star (THE OFFICE’s Rainn ‘Dwight’ Wilson) who decides to become the new drummer for his nephew's high…
Ruins, The (2008): Dir. Carter Smith
Feat. Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Joe Anderson; Gory cautionary tale, adapted from Scott Smith’s popular pulp novel, in which a group of college pals on an eye–opening Mexican vacation…
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2, The (2008): Dir. Sanaa Hamri
Feat. America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn…; Solid follow–up drama revisits the lives of the four childhood gal pals from SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS three years later as they adapt…
Somers Town (2008): Dir. Shane Meadows
Feat. Piotr Jagiello, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson…; A gentle, winsome offering from dir. Shane Meadows, centred on an unlikely friendship between a shy Polish teen, and a knockabout runaway from the…
Step Up 2: The Streets (2008): Dir. Jon Chu
Feat. Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Adam G. Sevani…; Sequel to the hip–hop dance hit flick following a group of young street dancers battling for supremacy. Well–orchestrated…
Strange Wilderness (2008): Dir. Fred Wolf
Feat. Steve Zahn, Jonah Hill, Justin Long; Unremittingly stupid stoner comedy about a bunch of losers who go on a search to find Bigfoot in order to save their abysmally–rated wildlife…
Twilight (2008): Dir. Catherine Hardwicke
Feat. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Billy Burke…; The first installment of the uber–popular book franchise (by Stephanie Meyer) sees lonely teenage girl Bella fall in love with Edward, a…
Wild Child (2008): Dir. Nick Moore
Feat. Emma Roberts, Aidan Quinn, Natasha Richardson…; Fluffy teen comedy focused on a pampered American highschooler shipped off to an English boarding school after maxing out daddy's credit card one too…
Acting Out (2007): Dir. Danny Merton
Feat. Lara Cox; Girl–centric Australian 'indie' in which a high–schooler grapples with various issues of intimacy and relationships. Suspended from…
Ben X (2007): Dir. Nic Balthazar
Feat. Greg Timmermans, Marijke Pinoy, Laura Verlinden; A provocative Dutch drama of 21st century teen angst, centred on an Asperger’s Syndrome–afflicted gamer whose addiction to online…
Boy A (2007): Dir. John Crowley
Feat. Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Siobhan Finneran; Celebrated British drama following a young man's struggle to adjust to everyday life in Manchester after spending most of his teenagehood in…
Chaotic Ana (Caótica Ana) (2007): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Gerrit Graham, Manuela Vellés; Spanish auteur Julio Medem (SEX AND LUCIA) returns with this abstractly ambitious, idiosyncratic undertaking, meshing the self–exploration of a…
Charlie Bartlett (2007): Dir. Jon Poll
Feat. Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jnr., Hope Davis…; Indie comedy focused around wealthy Charlie Bartlett (Yelchin) the newcomer at Western Summit High who becomes the self–appointed psychiatrist…
City of Men (Cidade dos Homens) (2007): Dir. Paulo Morelli
Feat. Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha; Salty Rio back–blocks melodrama from the producers of CITY OF GOD revolving around two orphaned street kids on the brink of adulthood faced…
Concrete Romance (Cemento armato) (2007): Dir. Marco Martani
Feat. Nicolas Vaporidis, Giorgio Faletti, Carolina Crescentini; Brutal Italian thriller focused on a young petty crim unwittingly caught up in a deadly revenge plot by a Mafia kingpin after damaging his…
Crows O (Kurôzu zero) (2007): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Shun Oguri, Kishitani Goro, Yamada Takayuki…; Irresistibly entertaining manga adaptation from the genius director of ICHI THE KILLER, presenting the first in a series of Japanese action films…
December Boys (2007): Dir. Rod Hardy
Feat. Daniel Radcliffe, Jack Thompson, Kris McQuade…; Sunbaked, nostalgic Aussie coming–of–age drama centred on four teenage orphans whose tight friendships are tested when a family looks…
Education of Charlie Banks, The (2007): Dir. Fred Durst
Feat. Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri; Modest drama set in the seventies concerning the tentative friendship between bookish Eisenberg and thug for hire Ritter. Surprisingly solid…
Freedom Writers (2007): Dir. Richard LaGravenese
Feat. Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Imelda Staunton; Hilary Swank guides a classroom of problem students through the quagmire of racial and political divide in this uplifting paean to…
Gossip Girl (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Blake Lively, Taylor Momsen, Leighton Meester; Flashy teen series centred on a group of well–heeled New York prep school kids whose main focus in life is a blog written by 'Gossip Girl'…
Greek (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Scott Michael Foster, Spencer Grammer; Outlandish comedy series focused on a former high school geek who decides to cast off his dorky former self and pledge a fraternity at college…
How She Move (2007): Dir. Ian Iqbal Rashid
Feat. Rutina Wesley, DeRay Davis; Energised yet predictable street drama of a young woman who uses her mean dance moves to rise above a bleak existence and achieve her dreams. A…
Into the Wild (2007): Dir. Sean Penn
Feat. Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt…; With his trademark earnestness, Sean Penn adapts Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book about a 22–year–old who dropped out of society in the…
Let's Say (On dirait que... ) (2007): Dir. Françoise Marie; A sweetly humble documentary in the vein of ETRE ET AVOIR, involving a group of French kids aged 8–13 asked to portray their parents’ jobs…
Paranoid Park (2007): Dir. Gus Van Sant
Feat. Taylor Momsen; Gus Van Sant shoots Blake Nelson’s coming–of–age novella, about a young skateboarder’s complicity in the death of a security guard,…
Rocket Science (2007): Dir. Jeffrey Blitz
Feat. Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Denis O'Hare…; Pointy–headed comedy from the dir. of the documentary SPELLBOUND that switches the subject to high–school debating, and the travails of…
September (2007): Dir. Peter Carstairs
Feat. Kelton Pell, Xavier Samuel, Clarence John Ryan…; Quiet coming–of–age drama about the changing mateship between two boys – one black, one white – set in rural Australia in…
Shrooms (2007): Dir. Paddy Breathnach
Feat. Robert Hoffman; Flimsy slasher horror in which a group of clot–headed American college kids camp out in some creepy Irish woods and experience a terrifying…
Skins (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Nicholas Hoult, Kaya Scodelario; A worthy, mildly refreshing addition to the youth angst genre, concerning a clique of present–day Bristol teens negotiating the pitfalls of…
Sydney White (Sydney White and the Seven Dorks) (2007): Dir. Joe Nussbaum
Feat. Amanda Bynes, Sara Paxton; Favourable contemporary take on the 'Snow White' fairytale, with a fed–up college freshman (Amanda Bynes) commandeering seven geeky guys to…
Teeth (2007): Dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein
Feat. Jess Weixler; Squeamishly entertaining horror centred on a sweet high school virgin who discovers she has a set of mutant teeth between her legs, the perfect…
This American Life (TV Series) (2007-2009): Ordinary strangers share their extraordinary anecdotes which are compiled by the worldly host into explorations on a given theme. This collection of…
Towelhead (Nothing Is Private) (2007): Dir. Alan Ball
Feat. Summer Bishil, Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette…; The writer of AMERICAN BEAUTY and SIX FEET UNDER brings an acclaimed novel to the screen in this dark and uncomfortable suburban drama focused on a…
Two Days in Paris (2 Days in Paris) (2007): Dir. Julie Delpy
Feat. Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg; Delightful, self–starring directorial debut from Julie Delpy about an angsty Franco–American couple who drop in to visit her very…
Weapons (2007): Dir. Adam Bhala Lough
Feat. Nick Cannon, Paul Dano, Mark Webber…; Nihilistic thriller revolves around the intersecting lives of gun–toting teenagers and the circumstances surrounding a murder filled…
XXY (2007): Dir. Lucía Puenzo
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Ines Efron, Martin Piroyanski; Articulate portrayal of the life of an intersex teenager searching for identity and exploring the complexities of coming–of–age in a…
2:37 (2006): Dir. Murali K. Thalluri; Topical and wrenching youth drama links six Australian teenagers to an unspeakable tragedy, unraveling with assured and precocious confidence their…
Candy (2006): Dir. Neil Armfield
Feat. Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush…; Injecting free–spirited performances and downbeat songs into a predictable heroin dramaturgy , this roving drama concerns two young bohemians…
Clerks 2 (2006): Dir. Kevin Smith
Feat. Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson…; Troublesome sequel to Kevin Smith's vulgar low–budget classic again injects bawdy humour and repressed angst into the lives of two listless,…
Fast and the Furious 3, The - Tokyo Drift (2006): Dir. Justin Lin
Feat. Lucas Black, Lil' Bow Wow, Sung Kang; Second retread for the 'boy racer' franchise takes an Asian detour, with hothead Lucas Black having one car–smash too many and being sent to…
Final Destination 3 (2006): Dir. James Wong
Feat. Mary Elizabeth Winstead; Workmanlike third entry in the horror series known best for its wildly inventive death sequences, this time setting up a handful of teenagers to…
Half Nelson (2006): Dir. Ryan Fleck
Feat. Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Omar Epps; Ryan Gosling proves serious acting chops in this subtle yet prickly drama about a teacher with a crack habit and the student – his dealer's…
Hatchet (2006): Dir. Adam Green
Feat. Joel David Moore; Definitely not for the squeamish, this gloriously gruesome horror involves imbecilic young tourists getting stalked, lopped and hacked up by a…
High School Musical (2006): Dir. Kenny Ortega
Feat. Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale…; Top–notch Disney telemovie brims with youthful energy in telling the tale of two teens meeting at a party, being suddenly inspired by Karaoke…
I'm Reed Fish (2006): Dir. Zackary Adler
Feat. Jay Baruchel, Alexis Bledel, Katey Sagal; Sweetly subversive coming–of–age indie comedy focused on Reed Fish (Baruchel), a philosophical young radio presenter whose idealistic…
John Tucker Must Die (2006): Dir. Betty Thomas
Feat. Jesse Metcalfe, Sophia Bush; A philandering stud gets his comeuppance after three girls plot to exact sweet revenge. Checking off all the insipid teen movie clichés, this never…
Kidulthood (2006): Dir. Menhaj Huda; Authentic and bleak slice of West London street life in which a group of jive–talking teenagers plot their moves in the 48 hours after a…
Love is the Drug (Addcited to Her Love) (2006): Dir. Elliott Lester
Feat. John Patrick Amedori, Lizzy Caplan, D. J. Cotrona…; A love triangle turns deadly in this potent immersion into the world of teenage sex and drug–taking. An unfortunate slide into melodrama in the…
Loving Annabelle (2006): Dir. Katherine Brooks
Feat. Diana Gaidry, Erin Kelly; Lesbian drama of forbidden love between a naughty, punkish Catholic schoolgirl and her Sapphic poetry teacher. Softly sincere and visually very…
Marie Antoinette (2006): Dir. Sofia Coppola
Feat. Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis…; Girl wonder Sofia Coppola lets a fetching Kirsten Dunst eat cake (and then some) as a reluctant Queen in late–18th century Versailles, stifled…
Melissa P. (2006): Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Feat. Marcello Mazzarella, Maria Valverde; Saucy, if ultimately restrained memoir of sexual adolescence, concerning a promiscuous teenage girl who seeks solace from her troubled life by…
Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, The (2006): Dir. Tim Skousen
Feat. Justin Long, Carl Weathers, Joey Kern…; A bogus bigfoot turd discovery excites geeks, wonks, cops and redneck bullies in this deadpan teen dork comedy with a top 80s soundtrack and some…
Save The Last Dance 2 (2006): Dir. David Petrarca
Feat. Izabella Miko, Jacqueline Bisset; Not the last dance, but a sequel reprising the aspirations of Sarah (now played by Izabella Miko), here on the verge of attending prestigious…
Starter for 10 (Starter for Ten) (2006): Dir. Tom Vaughan
Feat. James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Alice Eve…; Cute but formulaic youthful rom–com set in Thatcher's Britain, with the boyishly handsome James McAvoy as a working–class (yeah, right)…
State's Evidence (2006): Dir. Benjamin Louis
Feat. Alexa Vega, Douglas Smith, Majandra Delfino…; Six high school students make a suicide pact which goes nastily awry, in this prurient youth drama clearly influenced by cinema provocateurs Larry…
Step Up (2006): Dir. Anne Fletcher
Feat. Channing Tatum, Rachel Griffiths; Rigidly adhering to the dance movie formula, two prodigious dancers from the wrong sides of the track become unlikely partners, dancing up a storm at…
Suburban Mayhem (2006): Dir. Paul Goldman
Feat. Emily Barclay, Michael Dorman, Anthony Hayes…; NZ's Emily Barclay crashes this trailer–trash satire of murderous alpha–males and vindictive females set in the god–awful 'burbs of…
This is England (2006): Dir. Shane Meadows
Feat. Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley…; Utterly authentic, hard–hitting memoir from the dir. of A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS, about a boy’s coming–of–age as a skinhead during…
Times and Winds (Bes Vakit) (2006): Dir. Reha Erdem
Feat. Ozkan Ozen, Ali Bey Kayali, Elit Iscan; Set in a remote Turkish village three friends on the cusp of adolescence struggle with both with their changing emotions and growing resentment of…
When a Stranger Calls (2006): Dir. Simon West
Feat. Camilla Belle; Tense, if skeletal, remake of the original 1970s babysitter thriller in which Camilla Belle minds the children in a remote house fitted with…
50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (2005): Dir. Stewart Main
Feat. Rima Te Wiata; Rural New Zealand forms a stylised background to this unusual rites–of–passage drama which combines whimsy, pathos and cruelty for a…
Actress, The (2005): Dir. Zak Hilditch
Feat. Matt Hardie, Catlin Higgins, Steve Mccall…; An observational black comedy centering on a Perth household of three sex–starved 20–somethings who invite a seductive actress to be…
Brick (2005): Dir. Rian Johnson
Feat. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emilie de Ravin…; Precocious neo–noir set amid the student body of a Californian high school with a bespectacled lad (Gordon–Levitt) taking a 'Sam Spade'…
Chumscrubber, The (2005): Dir. Arie Posin
Feat. Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Glenn Close…; A sadsack teenager (Bell) living in a sterile new suburb in Southern California discovers his best friend has committed suicide, an event which seems…
Cry Wolf (2005): Dir. Jeff Wadlow
Feat. Jon Bon Jovi; Inventive, if light on truly scary moments, this slasher suspenser is set in a posh American prep school, where bored teenagers concoct a fictional…
Drive - Notes from the Wilderness (TV Series) (2005): Dir. Mike Vallely; Cult skateboarder Mike Vallely travels the world on four small wheels to try and understand the meaning of skateboarding culture around the…
Hard Candy (2005): Dir. David Slade
Feat. Elliot Page, Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh; Unflinchingly dark and slickly impressive thriller proceeds from the chatroom flirtations between a precocious teenager (Page) and a…
Hating Alison Ashley (2005): Dir. Geoff Bennett
Feat. Delta Goodrem, Saskia Burmeister; Candyfloss comedy set in a Melbourne high school, where the arrival of pretty Alison Ashley (Goodrem) creates difficulties for Erica Yurken…
Havoc (2005): Dir. Barbara Kopple
Feat. Anne Hathaway, Bijou Phillips, Freddy Rodríguez…; Two pretty teenage girls in Los Angeles (Hathaway, Phillips) become impatient with the wannabe–gangsta antics of their high–school…
Ice Princess (2005): Dir. Tim Fywell
Feat. Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall; A gawky high schooler (Trachtenberg) who excels at physics but dreams of being an ice skater, gets a slim chance to slide her way into the National…
Italian, The (Italianetz) (2005): Dir. Andrei Kravchuk
Feat. Kolya Spiridonov, Nikolai Reutov, Maria Kuznetsova…; Despite the title there is little Tuscan sunshine to be found here, but instead a frosty though warm–hearted tale from a Russian orphanage,…
Linda Linda Linda (2005): Dir. Nobuhiro Yamashita
Feat. Doona Bae, Aki Maeda, Yu Kashii…; Guided by a rousing rock anthem, three high school seniors – and one gawky Korean exchange student – strive to have three Japanese punk classics…
Mutual Appreciation (2005): Dir. Andrew Bujalski
Feat. Justin Rice, Andrew Bujalski, Kate Dollenmayer…; An authentically amusing, perfectly observed capsule of post–graduate blues from the idiosyncratic dir. of FUNNY HA HA, praised almost…
Regular Lovers (Les Amants réguliers) (2005): Dir. Philippe Garrel
Feat. Louis Garrel, Clotilde Hesme; A richly photographed, Nouvelle Vague–styled homage to the revolutionary spirit of protesters in 1968 Paris, dir. Garrel offers a lucid, at…
Rent (2005): Dir. Chris Columbus
Feat. Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, Anthony Rapp; An ambitious and mostly comfortable adaptation of the 1990s Broadway update of Puccini's LA BOHEME, in which a multi–racial mixture of New York…
Russian Dolls (Les Poupées russes) (2005): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Romain Duris, Cecile De France…; A sequel of substance to the pan–Euro comedy THE SPANISH APARTMENT, which will again strike an entertaining chord with the young globetrotting,…
She's the Man (2005): Dir. Andy Fickman
Feat. Amanda Bynes, Vinnie Jones, Julie Hagerty…; Spunky, if rather uncomfortable transposition of Shakespeare’s 'Twelfth Night' into the realm of American teen comedy, about a talented female…
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, The (2005): Dir. Ken Kwapis
Feat. America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn…; A snappy adolescent drama concerning four teenage girlfriends spending their first summer apart, and sending a pair of magically–fitting jeans…
Sky High (2005): Dir. Mike Mitchell
Feat. Michael Angarano, Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston…; Likeable family comedy set in a future where superheroes are trained as teenagers at special schools, such as the 'Sky High' of the title, before…
Standing Still (2005): Dir. Matthew Cole Weiss
Feat. Adam Garcia, Amy Adams, Melissa Sagemiller…; Stacked American indie gathers an attractive ensemble of twenty–somethings around a wedding doubling as a long–overdue reunion of college…
Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The (TV Series) (2005): Feat. Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Ashley Tisdale…; Fun kids TV sitcom series from the Disney Channel starring real–life identical twins as two mischievous brothers who live in a hotel with their…
Tsotsi (2005): Dir. Gavin Hood
Feat. Presley Chweneyagae; Deserved winner of the 2006 Foreign Language Oscar, this gripping tale of a young homicidal street–thug ('tsotsi') in post–apartheid…
Twelve and Holding (12 and Holding) (2005): Dir. Michael Cuesta
Feat. Jeremy Renner, Zoe Weizenbaum, Conor Donovan…; A dark yet heart–rending coming–of–age indie drama concerning a group of pre–teens coping with life in the aftermath of a…
Wassup Rockers (2005): Dir. Larry Clark
Feat. Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez; Teen–centric misanthropist Larry Clark offers a shockingly enthusiastic view of contemporary youth in this story of Latino…
13 Going on 30 (2004): Dir. Gary Winick
Feat. Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Andy Serkis…; A winning variation on the "body swaparoo", with an unhappy teenager waking from her 13th birthday to find time fast–forwarded and herself a…
6 AM (2004): Dir. Adrian Kwan
Feat. Kenny Kwan, Steven Cheung, Charlene Choi…; Popular Canto–pop duo ‘The Boy’z’ star in this absurdist gangster tale, playing high school slackers ‘Bowl’ and ‘Noodle’ who…
Bullet Boy (2004): Dir. Saul Dibb
Feat. Ashley Walters; Tough expose of London's violent East End tracks the spiralling events and dire consequences which follow the release of a young black man (Walters)…
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Crazy) (2004): Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée
Feat. Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Michel Côté; Rockin' and colourful rites–of–passage drama evolves out an adolescent boy's (Grondin) experiences as part of an unusual family during…
Cinderella Story, A (2004): Dir. Mark Rosman
Feat. Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge, Chad Michael Murray; A bubbly updating of the 'Cinderella' fairytale, with Hilary Duff (LIZZIE MAGUIRE) playing a put–upon modernday teenager who must slave away…
Death in Gaza (2004): Dir. James Miller; A powerful, if not devastating, study of two children and a teenager growing up in the fractious and perilous Gaza Strip, where attacks by Israel and…
Duck Season (2004): Dir. Fernando Eimbcke
Feat. Enrique Arreola, Diego Cataño, Danny Miranda…; Two videogame–mad teens find their lazy Sunday hijacked by a nosey neighbour and stubborn pizza delivery man in this breezy, flavoursome…
Edukators, The (The Educators) (2004): Dir. Hans Weingartner
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg; A compulsive slice of German youth angst about rebels struggling with their cause, this arthouse smash–hit concerns a trio of youthful…
Eurotrip (2004): Dir. Jeff Schaffer
Feat. Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Michelle Trachtenberg…; The makers of ROADTRIP detour into the (moderately) 'bad taste' potential of a European holiday, as an American student attempts to track down a…
First Daughter (2004): Dir. Forest Whitaker
Feat. Katie Holmes, Mark Blucas, Michael Keaton; Katie Holmes scrubs up nicely as the daughter of the US President heading off to college for an inexperienced taste of freedom, inevitably getting…
Garden State (2004): Dir. Zach Braff
Feat. Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm…; Sitcom actor Zach Braff compliments his career in "Scrubs" as the ambitious writer, director and star of this personal, melancholy comedy that became…
Great Journey, The (Grand Voyage, Le) (2004): Dir. Ismaël Ferroukhi
Feat. Nicolas Cazalé; A few weeks before his college entrance exams, a young man finds himself obligated to drive his stubborn father to Mecca. From France through Italy,…
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (Harold and Kumar get the Munchies) (2004): Dir. Danny Leiner
Feat. Kal Penn, John Cho; An ethnic spin on the low–brow youth comedy formula from the dir. of DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR that prays at the altar of dope and junk…
Honey (2004): Dir. Billie Woodruff
Feat. Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer; Glossy fable of a community dance choreographer (Alba) who gets the chance to turn hip–hop creativeness into music–video moolah, and help…
Innocence (2004): Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Feat. Zoé Auclair, Lea Bridarolli, Bérangère Haubruge…; A strange and sinister – but also uttering beguiling – fantasy combining phantasmagorical imagery and a dewy atmosphere to metaphorically…
Machuca (2004): Dir. Andres Wood
Feat. Ariel Mateluna, Matias Quer; Observing the onset of Augusto Pinochet's bloody coup d'etat in Chile in 1973, through the eyes of two boys who become friends across the…
Mean Girls (2004): Dir. Mark Waters
Feat. Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert, Tina Fey…; The appealing Lindsay Lohan plays a teenager who moves from her African jungle home (her parents are zoologists) to the jungle of a Chicago…
Napoleon Dynamite (2004): Dir. Jared Hess
Feat. Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell…; Destined for cult status, this plays like a high school comedy made by its alienated students, with its quirky in–jokes and non–sequiturs…
Poster Boy (2004): Dir. Zak Tucker
Feat. Karen Allen, Michael Lerner, Jack Noseworthy…; A campaigning right–wing senator conscripts his closeted gay son to play happy families for the public, but the stakes are raised when the son…
Pure (2004): Dir. Jim Donovan
Feat. Giancarlo Caltabiano, Robert Crooks, Laura Jordan; Boasting one of the hottest music scenes in recent years, Montreal takes centre stage in this character–driven piece involving a girl torn…
Raise Your Voice (2004): Dir. Sean McNamara
Feat. Hilary Duff, John Corbett, Rita Wilson…; The fetching Hilary Duff plays an aspiring young singer from Arizona, who after the tragic death of her brother, elopes to a music–training…
Rhythm Is It! (2004): Dir. Thomas Grube; The Berlin Philharmonic’s ambitious and dramatic undertaking – to school 250 children in a staging of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" – is…
Saved! (2004): Dir. Brian Dannelly
Feat. Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin…; Satire of 90s Christian teen mores sees Jena Malone ostracised by her righteous friends after becoming pregnant. Surprising lack of bite is…
Sleepover (2004): Dir. Joe Nussbaum
Feat. Alexa Vega, Mika Boorem, Jane Lynch…; The 'tweenie' star of SPY KIDS, Alexa Vega, ventures into more conventional mission with this slightly tweaked high–school comedy in which…
Somersault (2004): Dir. Cate Shortland
Feat. Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran…; Visually impressive though underwritten account of a fragile Australian teenager who flees her home for the wider world after being caught in bed…
Stray Dogs (Sag-haye velgard) (2004): Dir. Marziyeh Meshkini
Feat. Gol-Ghotai , Zahed , Agheleh Rezaie; A wrenching, emotionally gripping tale of two children, orphaned after their parents are imprisoned, who must fend for themselves in…
Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand) (2004): Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Feat. Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif; The first widely–released film to emerge from post–Hussein Iraq, this wrenching tale concerns a raucous gang of children who scratch out…
Veronica Mars (TV Series) (2004): Feat. Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni…; Addictive, dark–hued mystery noir masquerading as a high school drama, centred on the socially ostracised teen daughter of a private eye whose…
Way of Life, A (2004): Dir. Amma Asante
Feat. Stephanie James, Brenda Blethyn; Emotionally brutal yet skillful 'kitchen sink' drama from first–time dir. Asante, about a single teenage mum giving and taking the hard knocks…
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004): Dir. Robert Luketic
Feat. Kate Bosworth, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace…; Quality fluff, with Bosworth playing a smalltown girl who wins the titular date, expecting a one–off evening, but gaining an ardent…
You Got Served (2004): Dir. Christopher B. Stokes
Feat. Marques Houston, Omari Granberry; Hiphop melodrama in which rival 'crews' battle it out for supremacy in the arena of break–dancing. Renowned for the exceptional dance…
Youth, The (Yuva) (2004): Dir. Mani Ratnam
Feat. Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Ajay Devgan; A Bollywood epic with debts to the likes of PULP FICTION and AMORES PERROS, structuring the storylines of three contrasting young men around a…
15 (2003): Dir. Royston Tan
Feat. Melvin Chen, Erick Chun; Doing for the tiny island nation of Singapore what LA HAINE did for France, this box–office hit follows the misfiring antics of three teenagers…
American Pie 3 (American Wedding) (2003): Dir. Jesse Dylan
Feat. Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy, Seann William Scott; Third in the series of raunchy–on–top comedies, this offers little that's new, but does manage to be better than expected. With two of…
Battle of Shaker Heights, The (2003): Dir. Efram Potelle, Kyle Rankin
Feat. Shia LaBeouf, Elden Henson, Amy Smart…; This product of the "Project Greenlight" film–making reality–TV is a a light but engaging story of a young war–reenactment…
Best of Youth, The (La Meglio gioventù) (2003): Dir. Marco Tullio Giordana; Sprawling and heady Italian saga tracks the lives of two brothers through the idealistic dreams of the 1960s and the long messy aftermath of…
Bookies (2003): Dir. Mark Illsley
Feat. Nick Stahl, Lukas Haas, Rachael Leigh Cook…; Four college friends become small–time bookies, only to find their world spinning dangerously out of control when their greed attracts the…
Bright Young Things (2003): Dir. Stephen Fry
Feat. Emily Mortimer, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dan Aykroyd…; Set among the aspirant youth of 1930s Britain, this fresh satirical comedy marks a promising debut for dir. Fry, even if the drama is sliced a little…
Cafe Lumiere (Kôhî jikô) (2003): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Tadanobu Asano, Yo Hitoto; Luminous tribute to Japanese dir. Yasujiro Ozu from a Taiwanese admirer, which honours Ozu's aesthetic in a minimalist study of personal…
Camp (2003): Dir. Todd Graff
Feat. Daniel Letterle, Joanna Chilcoat, Don Dixon; A heart–on–its–sleeve musical set an American summer camp for 'artistic' teenagers, in which individual fears and hopes find group…
Cheetah Girls, The (2003): Dir. Oz Scott
Feat. Raven -Symone, Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan…; Bubblegum pop teen chick flick following four New York teens trying to make it big in the music world who end up having to choose between fame and…
Cromartie High School (TV Series) (Sakigake!! Kuromati Kôkô) (2003): Dir. Hiroaki Sakurai; The zany and hilarious episodes in the life of a teenage boy who ends up at a rough public school, peopled by an array of thugs, robots, a gorilla…
Dreamers, The (2003): Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
Feat. Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel; Decadent youth drama set in politically turbulent Paris of 1968, in which a young American film–buff is drawn into an intense, peculiar…
Final Destination 2 (2003): Dir. David R Ellis
Feat. Ali Larter, A J Cook, Michael Landes; Inevitably tongue–in–cheek sequel to one of the better teen horror’s of the late nineties replaces the original’s doomed…
Girl Next Door, The (2003): Dir. Luke Greenfield
Feat. Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, James Remar…; Cute sex comedy about a high–school virgin who falls in love with his next–door neighbour, whom he soon discovers is a former porn…
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Classics: From 1983 to 1986 (The Boys From Fengkuei; A Summer at Grandpa's; A Time to Live, A Time to Die; Dust in the Wind) (2003): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien; A collection of four of the early films from director Hou Hsiao–Hsien, who is a leading figure in the Taiwanese New Wave. The Boys From…
Just Married (2003): Dir. Shawn Levy
Feat. Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy; Comedy which contrives a juvenile romance between two youngsters who meet on a beach, then hurriedly tie the knot. Their honeymoon in Europe turns…
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants) (2003): Dir. Yann Samuell
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet; Two French kids develop an intense relationship through escalating games of "dare" that bond and haunt them through a turbulent teenage and…
Mean Creek (2003): Dir. Jacob Aaron Estes
Feat. Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelly; Skillful 'delinquent thriller' about a group of highschool kids who plot to humiliate the overweight school bully on a boating daytrip. Though the…
Mona Lisa Smile (2003): Dir. Mike Newell
Feat. Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles…; Julia Roberts is restrained and fairly effective in this Ivy–League drama, set at the renowned Wellesley College in the 1950s, where she…
Noi Albinoi (Noi the Albino) (2003): Dir. Dagur Kari
Feat. Tomas Lemarquis, Pröstur Leó Gunnarsson; Distinctive drama about a 'gifted' 17–year–old who rebels against the limits of life in a remote Icelandic town. Brimming with…
OC, The (TV Series) - Season 1 (2003-2004): Feat. Peter Gallagher, Mischa Barton, Kelly Rowan…; A stylish and instantly popular TV Series set in Orange County, California, in which a juvenile delinquent (McKenzie) is introduced to the…
One Tree Hill (TV Series) (2003): Feat. Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton…; Smallscreen teenage melodrama set in the small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, and around the simmering relationship between two…
Rage in Placid Lake, The (2003): Dir. Tony McNamara
Feat. Ben Lee, Rose Byrne, Miranda Richardson…; Tale of an eccentric bullied teenager, this mordant comedy executes its satire of abnormality without mercy. The titular Lake (Ben Lee)…
Rules of Attraction, The (2003): Dir. Roger Avary
Feat. James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Kate Bosworth…; James Van Der Beek tries mightily to shake off his clean–idol image in this unruly and unattractive black comedy about an over–privileged…
School of Rock (2003): Dir. Richard Linklater
Feat. Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White; A must for rock fans of all ages, this hilarious, tongue–in–cheek tribute to rock music is charged by the head–banging enthusiasm…
Shark Net, The (TV Mini-series) (2003): Feat. William McInnes, Angie Milliken, Tim Draxl; Based on the memoir by Robert Drewe, this Australian mini–series focuses on Drewe's move to Perth as a young, excitable boy and his gradual…
Shattered Glass (2003): Dir. Billy Ray
Feat. Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny…; Compelling character–driven drama, based around the true story of 'New Republic' journalist Stephen Glass (Christensen), who was brought into…
Spellbound (2003): Dir. Jeffrey Blitz; Surprise hit documentary that struck a universal chord in following eight high–school hopefuls in their bid to succeed at the American National…
Tale of Two Sisters, A (Janghwa Hongryeon) (2003): Dir. Ji-woon Kim
Feat. Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim…; A further revelation of the K–horror genre, this enters the forboding world of two devoted sisters who endure the lakeside household of their…
Thirteen (2003): Dir. Catherine Hardwicke
Feat. Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed; Startling depiction of a young teenager who spins out of control as she falls in with the wrong crowd and beyond the reach of her struggling…
Travelling Light (2003): Dir. Kathyrn Millard
Feat. Pia Miranda, Sacha Horler, Marshall Napier; A lightly enjoyable coming–of–age drama set in 1970s Adelaide, with Miranda playing an artistically precocious young woman seeking to…
United States of Leland, The (2003): Dir. Matthew Ryan Hoge
Feat. Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein…; Solid indie drama that plumbs the soul of a youthful murderer (Gosling) and his web of life–connections after he stabs a retarded boy to…
Zero Day (2003): Dir. Ben Coccio
Feat. Andre Keuck, Calvin Robertson; A confronting, fictionalized insight into the nihilistic mind–set of two alienated students who plotted and carried out a violent massacre at…
Ali G In Da House (2002): Dir. Mark Mylod
Feat. Sacha Baron Cohen; Sacha Baron Cohen and his wildly successfully small–screen alter–ego take to the feature film narrative like a duck to water in this…
Antwone Fisher (2002): Dir. Denzel Washington
Feat. Denzel Washington, Derek Luke; From a uniquely autobiographical screenplay by the real Antwone Fisher, Denzel Washington takes the helm and stars as a US Navy psychiatrist who…
Backyard, The (2002): Dir. Paul Hough; A cringe–inducing glimpse into the American subculture of backyard amateur wrestling, in which contestants up the ante with barbed wire,…
Blue Car (2002): Dir. Karen Moncrieff
Feat. Agnes Bruckner, David Strathairn; A rites–of–passage drama of distinction, this is realistic and affecting in its account of a high–school student whose flair for…
Blurred (2002): Dir. Evan Clarry
Feat. Matthew Newton, Craig Homer, Kristian Schmid…; Teen comedy follows a group of 'schoolies' – teenagers on a summer bender in Queensland, Australia – as they drink, root, carouse and…
Bomb the System (2002): Dir. Adam Bhala Lough
Feat. Mark Webber; A tale of alienated youth in New York City, set around a teenager's (Webber) nocturnal activities spraying graffiti around the city streets with a…
Cabin Fever (2002): Dir. Eli Roth
Feat. Justin Ladd, James DeBello, Rider Strong; More a horror ‘tribute’ than a horror movie, this indie effort from David Lynch protégé Roth steals knowingly from every other…
Confessions of an American Girl (American Girl) (2002): Dir. Jordan Brady
Feat. Jena Malone, Brad Renfro, Alicia Witt…; Black comedy set around a trailer family's visit to their imprisoned father on the annual 'prison picnic' day. Over the course of this his teenage…
Crossroads (2002): Dir. Tamra Davis
Feat. Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning…; Britney Spears hits the screen and the road as a teen searching for her long–lost mother. A couple of pals with their own ‘issues’…
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The (2002): Dir. Peter Care
Feat. Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin, Vincent D'Onofrio…; A quietly sobering, yet refreshingly humorous memoir of hormonal and delinquent adolescence under the arches of a strict Catholic high school, with…
Drumline (2002): Dir. Charles Stone III
Feat. Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones; Depicting the journey of a talented street drummer from Harlem into the world of big–time stadium marching bands, this is short on story moves,…
Emperor's Club, The (2002): Dir. Michael Hoffman
Feat. Kevin Kline, Emile Hirsch, Embeth Davidtz…; Kevin Kline gives a rich portrait of a dedicated professor of Classics at a private boys school who finds his greatest challenge in a bad egg…
Garage Days (2002): Dir. Alex Proyas
Feat. Pia Miranda, Maya Stange, Kick Curry…; A young garage band in Sydney look for their big break, while coping with love, drugs and everyday life, in a frisky though oddly–toned…
Igby Goes Down (2002): Dir. Burr Steers
Feat. Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum…; More than meets the eye in this indie New York satire about an over–educated ‘slacker’ experiencing growing pains amid upper…
Lilya 4-Ever (2002): Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Feat. Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Pavel Ponomaryov; Lauded Swedish film–maker Lukas Moodyson turns his talents to the plight of a Russian teenage girl whose hopes for a brighter future (and…
Morvern Callar (2002): Dir. Lynne Ramsay
Feat. Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott; Enigmatic drama from the dir. of RATCATCHER that unreels a woman's journey into the unknown after her boyfriend commits suicide and she purloins his…
On the Edge (2002): Dir. John Carney
Feat. Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea; Fairly risky and consistently bleak drama set around three teenage mental patients and their doctor. Thin treatment of the subject matter is redeemed…
Orange County (2002): Dir. Jake Kasdan
Feat. Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Harold Ramis…; Wannabe teen author Colin Hanks (son of Tom) aspires to an ivory–tower creative–writing course but first must extricate himself from a…
Ping Pong (2002): Dir. Fumisiko Sori
Feat. Yôsuke Kubozuka, Arata; A madcap, yet gently humourous Japanese sports tale, set around two table tennis hotshots (Kubozuka and Arata) preparing for a ferocious battle at a…
Raising Victor Vargas (2002): Dir. Peter Sollett
Feat. Victor Rasuk, Judy Marte; A sensitive, appealing urban coming of age story set in a Hispanic New York subculture that rewardingly favours low–key incident over…
Slaughter Rule, The (2002): Dir. Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith
Feat. David Morse, Ryan Gosling, Clea Duvall…; Mounted on the icy prairies of Montana, this feted ‘indie’ drama sensitively portrays the balance of friendship between a troubled teenager and…
Spanish Apartment, The (L'Auberge Espagnole) (2002): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Judith Godreche…; Summery comedy set in a Barcelona apartment, where six international exchange students variously mingle, cavort and fall messily in love. Although…
Spun (2002): Dir. Jonas Akerlund
Feat. Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo…; A cinematically exhilarating depiction of existence among a group of methamphetamine (P) addicts in Los Angeles, that is sure to divide audiences as…
Sugar and Spice (2002): Dir. Francine McDougall
Feat. Mena Suvari, Marley Shelton; A group of 'sugar and spice' cheerleaders plan a bank–robbery in this passably efficient black comedy. Despite the array of stereotypes, this…
Suicide Club (Suicide Circle) (2002): Dir. Sion Sono
Feat. Ryo Ishibashi, Akaji Maro, Masatoshi Nagase; Off–beat Japanese thriller based on apparently real–life incidents in which groups of high–school children commit mass…
Sweet Sixteen (2002): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Martin Compston; A bleak, yet curiously uplifting portrait of teenage high–spirits run awry in working class Scotland. Anchored by a youthfully charismatic…
Walk to Remember, A (2002): Dir. Adam Shankman
Feat. Mandy Moore, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah…; Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel (who also wrote THE NOTEBOOK) this romantic drama tells the classic story of two teens from different worlds who…
40 Days and 40 Nights (2001): Dir. Michael Lehmann
Feat. Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon; 'Troubled' by the fallout from his last break–up Josh Hartnett decides that to break out of serial monogamy he must abstain from sex for Lent…
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001): Dir. Shunji Iwai
Feat. Hayato Ichihara, Yu Aoi, Ayumi Ito…; Vogue Japanese dir. Shunji Iwai renders the contemporary teen malaise with poignancy and despair in this haunting commentary on the perils of…
American Pie 2 (2001): Dir. J.B. Rogers
Feat. Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne…; A second helping of pie is likely to cause groans of indigestion for all but the most unsophisticated palates, mincing the same teen hormonal…
Anti-Trust (2001): Dir. Peter Howitt
Feat. Ryan Phillippe, Tim Robbins, Rachael Leigh Cook…; Dot.com billlionaire Tim Robbins (modelled on Bill Gates) tries to buy the soul of computer whizz Ryan Phillippe in this competent hacker thriller,…
Bully (2001): Dir. Larry Clark
Feat. Brad Renfro, Leo Fitzpatrick, Nick Stahl…; A true–life story of Florida murder, teenager style, which dir. Clark uses to produce an X–rated, yet quite recognisable portrait of…
Chain of Fools (2001): Dir. Traktor
Feat. Salma Hayek, Steve Zahn, Jeff Goldblum…; Comic–thriller concerning a stash of stolen gold, notable more for a great cast than for comic thrills, though it has its admirers.
Crazy Beautiful (2001): Dir. John Stockwell
Feat. Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Bruce Davison; Lively teenage fare, with a troubled–rich–girl (Kirsten Dunst) meets poor–boy (Jay Hernandez) tale raised (though by no means…
Devil's Playground (2001): Dir. Lucy Walker; An extremely rare glimpse into Amish culture, with focus on a rite of passage known as "Rumspringa", during which their 16–year–olds…
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001): Dir. Stacy Peralta; Celebrated beyond its niche audience of surf–and–skaters, this documentary recounts the origins and rise to fame (and mixed fortune) of a…
Donnie Darko (2001): Dir. Richard Kelly
Feat. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore…; Admired by critics and an ardent fanbase for its originality and eclecticism, this quirky teen fantasy is arguably a slick patchwork of other movie…
Eureka (2001): Dir. Shinji Aoyama
Feat. Aoi Miyazaki, Koji Yakusho; Unforgettably beguiling Japanese road trip movie shot in sepia–toned cinema scope, following the existential odyssey of a group of emotionally…
Get Over It (2001): Dir. Tommy O’Haver
Feat. Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, Melissa Sagemiller…; Although helped by the charisma of Kirsten Dunst, this teen–movie retreads many of the usual formulas, with hero Ben Foster losing his…
Ghost World (2001): Dir. Terry Zwigoff
Feat. Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi…; Nothing to do with the paranormal, but everything to do with the anti–normal, this independent gem is a surprisingly endearing tale of two…
Glitter (2001): Dir. Vondie Curtis Hall
Feat. Mariah Carey, Max Beesley; Set in the early 1980's, pop idol Mariah Carey plays a teenage(!) girl who, unsurprisingly, is eager to become a famous pop–singer. Of course…
Goddess of 1967 (2001): Dir. Clara Law
Feat. Rose Byrne; An award–winning lead performance from Rose Byrne elevates this character drama set in a 1967 Citroen car, where a journey into the outback…
Hell House (2001): Dir. George Ratliff; Behind–the–scenes account of a small fundamentalist church in Texas whose "Hell House" serves as a tool to literally "scare the hell out…
Interstate 60 (2001): Dir. Bob Gale
Feat. James Marsden, Gary Oldman, Kurt Russell…; An appealingly quirky teen road movie from the writer of the BACK TO THE FUTURE series, in which Marsden sets out on the mythical American highway,…
Jeepers Creepers (2001): Dir. Victor Salva
Feat. Justin Long, Gina Philips; A brother–sister couple take a rural back road home, but make an ill–advised roadside stop where urban mythology becomes gross–out…
Josie and the Pussycats (2001): Dir. Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont
Feat. Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Rachael Leigh Cook…; Cute, but declawed pop–biz satire derived from an ‘Archie’ comic spinoff (and TV series), in which the titular girl–band use their…
Knight's Tale, A (2001): Dir. Brian Helgeland
Feat. Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany; Surprisingly satisfying medieval comedy slam–bang, that wears its mindlessness on its chain–mail sleeve, while Geoffrey Chaucer’s…
Late Night Shopping (2001): Dir. Saul Metzstein
Feat. James Lance; Amiable comedy set in the oddball world of late night shift–workers, stacking shelves in contemporary England. Set around a group of four…
Long Time Dead (2001): Dir. Marcus Adams
Feat. Joe Absolom, Lara Belmont; Though hip, slick and atmospheric, this British horror entry for the multiplexes is at once straight–faced and silly, and strictly…
Millennium Mambo (2001): Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Feat. Shu Qi; The first in dir. Hou’s ‘contemporary youth’ trilogy is a light–infused strobe of aimless young adults living in the accelerated urban…
Not Another Teen Movie (2001): Dir. Joel Gallen
Feat. Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh, Molly Ringwald…; Yes, yet another teen movie. Assembling the cliches, obligatory scenes and stereotypes of the US High–School comedy, this trots out an…
Princess Diaries, The (2001): Dir. Garry Marshall
Feat. Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway; PYGMALION–style tale of an initially gawky Anne Hathaway getting made over as a princess, that doesn’t exactly get the royal treatment…
Purely Belter (2001): Dir. Mark Herman
Feat. Chris Beattie, Greg McLane; A pair of spotty Newcastle lads make a pact to stay out of trouble and devise legit money–making schemes to score themselves football season…
Rollerball (2001): Dir. John McTiernan
Feat. Jean Reno, Chris Klein, LL Cool J…; Now–notorious flop ‘remake’ of the James Caan original, set around the violent futuristic game of the title (kind of a cross between…
Say It Isn't So (2001): Dir. J.B. Rogers
Feat. Heather Graham, Chris Klein, Sally Field; A romantic chase–comedy with a difference, this Farrelly Bros (KINGPIN) produced effort sees young couple Heather Graham and Chris Klein split…
Scary Movie 2 (2001): Dir. Keenan Ivory Wayans
Feat. Tori Spelling, James Woods; The Wayans clan (Marlon, Shawn and Keenan) again agreeably pastiche the (already self–parodic) SCREAM slasher genre, yet the law of diminishing…
Secret Life of Us, The (TV Series) (2001): Feat. Claudia Karvan, Deborah Mailman; Surprisingly consistent dramedy set in funky, downtown Melbourne amongst a group of romantically ambitious young people. Maintains a quirky lightness…
Tart (2001): Dir. Christina Wayne
Feat. Dominique Swain, Brad Renfro, Lacey Chabert…; Dominique Swain (LOLITA) comes a cropper in New York’s prestigious prep–school, Hewitt College, becoming involved with cocaine,…
Teenage Caveman (2001): Dir. Larry Clark
Feat. Andrew Keegan, Tara Subkoff, Richard Hillman; The highlight of a ‘Creature Feature’ series that updates drive–in fare of yesteryear, this delirious slab of camp set in a…
Valentine (2001): Dir. Jamie Blanks
Feat. Denise Richards, David Boreanz, Jessica Capshaw…; The dir. of URBAN LEGEND brings us a Valentine’s Day slasher–massacre, centred round a cupid–masked serial–killer out to avenge…
Van Wilder - Party Liason (2001): Dir. Walt Becker
Feat. Tara Reid, Ryan Reynolds, Tim Matheson; Freewheeling 'college comedy' in which perenial undergrad Reynolds must use his social skills to make a living after his allowance is cut off. Fairly…
Wet Hot American Summer (2001): Dir. David Wain
Feat. Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Marguerite Moreau…; Set in the charmingly unhip summer–camp 'Camp Firewood', this wettingly hilarious satire of 1970s and 80s culture, mores and cliches is…
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too!) (2001): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna; Acclaimed universally (and here in NZ beset with censorship wrangles), this Mexican joyride, taken by two teenage boys and an older woman, is indeed…
Anatomie (2000): Dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky
Feat. Franke Potente; Franke Potente (RUN LOLA RUN) stars as a bright medical student at an elite college who discovers her fellow freshmen and women are turning up as…
Angst (2000): Dir. Daniel Nettheim
Feat. Sam Lewis, Jessica Napier, Justin Smith; Four post–teenagers search for their place in a world revolving around money, sex, booze, pop culture and a shared interest in…
Bad Girls From Valley High (A Fate Totally Worse Than Death) (2000): Dir. John T. Kretchmer
Feat. Christopher Lloyd; A good premise lifts this high–school comedy from out of the herd, with three socially ambitious girls having a curse placed on them which…
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000): Dir. Joe Berlinger
Feat. Kim Director, Jeffrey Donovan, Erica Leerhsen; Another troupe of young ghoul–hunters head for the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, which, in a post–modern twist, has become a…
Borstal Boy (2000): Dir. Peter Sheridan
Feat. Shawn Hatosy, Danny Dyer, Michael York; Well–mannered adaptation of playwright Brendan Behan's classic memoir of being sent to a youth prison in WW2 England after being caught with…
Centre Stage (2000): Dir. Nicholas Hytner
Feat. Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt…; Fable of balletic ambition in which three young woman (Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt) strive to enter the elite classes at New York's…
Cheaters (2000): Dir. John Stockwell
Feat. Jeff Daniels, Jena Malone, Paul Sorvino; Solid cable–movie based on the alarming true story of a state schoolteacher (Jeff Daniels) who encouraged his team of underachievers to cheat…
Cherry Falls (2000): Dir. Geoffrey Wright
Feat. Brittany Murphy, Jay Mohr; A mystery psycho–killer's penchant for slaying virgins presents life–saving opportunities for the geeks and jocks of a small–town…
Cut (2000): Dir. Kimble Rendall
Feat. Molly Ringwald; Solid Australian variation on SCREAM, with an imported Molly Ringwald helping complete a horror film abandoned some years before due to an…
Disco Pigs (2000): Dir. Kirsten Sheridan
Feat. Elaine Cassidy, Cillian Murphy; Bleak, edgy rites–of–passage portrait of an intense friendship between two 17 year–olds who share a twisted appetite for…
Dude, Where's My Car? (2000): Dir. Danny Leiner
Feat. Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Kristy Swanson; No–brainer Californian laughs, sets up stoners Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott (AMERICAN PIE) with ‘morning after’ amnesia and a lot…
Edge of Seventeen (2000): Dir. David Morton
Feat. Thomas Arklie; With its drab mid–1980s Ohio setting, complete with pastel clothing, Boy George–inspired haircuts and Bronksi Beat music, this puts a…
Final Destination (2000): Dir. James Wong
Feat. Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith…; A young man's premonition that his Paris–bound plane of classmates will explode after take–off causes a fall–out of unpredictable…
Finding Forrester (2000): Dir. Gus Van Sant
Feat. Sean Connery, Rob Brown, Anna Paquin…; Dir. Van Sant reprises the outlines of his own GOOD WILL HUNTING, with Sean Connery nurturing the wayward talent of basketballing teenager Rob Brown.
George Washington (2000): Dir. David Gordon Green
Feat. Candace Evanofski, Donald Holden, Damian Jewan Lee; With impressionistic widescreen photography, this low–key coming–of–age film frames its North Carolinan setting as the key player…
Ginger Snaps (2000): Dir. John Fawcett
Feat. Emily Perkins, Katherine Isabelle, Mimi Rogers; Canadian variation on the teen–horror model mixes the gene pool of adolescent angst with the werewolf genre, adopting lycanthropy as a metaphor…
Girlfight (2000): Dir. Karyn Kusama
Feat. Michelle Rodriguez; A teenage girl breaks out of her working–class rut by training as a boxer, an arena that presents sexual prejudice as her chief opponent.…
Gossip (2000): Dir. Davis Guggenheim
Feat. Lena Headey, Kate Hudson, Norman Reedus…; Three media students decide to create a story out of pure, unfounded gossip, targeting a affluent and prudish classmate. The story of her sexual…
Groove (2000): Dir. Greg Harrison
Feat. Mackenzie Firgens, Lola Glaudini, Denny Kirkwood; A night out at a San Francisco rave, evoking with dope–fuelled delirium the chaos as various party–goers either groove, burnout, get lost…
He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2000): Dir. Richard Lowenstein
Feat. Noah Taylor, Sophie Lee, Ian Hughes; Ramshackle Aussie comedy based on the cult novel, that follows the fortunes of blocked wannabe writer Noah Taylor in a series of flatting…
Hole, The (2000): Dir. Nick Hamm
Feat. Thora Birch, Daniel Brocklebank, Desmond Harrington…; Thora Birch (AMERICAN BEAUTY) delivers a convincing English accent for this Brit variation of Teenage Gothic, emerging as the only survivor of a…
Hopeless (2000): Dir. Stephen Hickey
Feat. Philip Pinner, Scott Wills, Adam Gardiner; Charming enough to have inspired a 26–episode TV series, this rookie Kiwi comedy boasts a genuine low–budget verve, a charismatic cast of…
Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000): Dir. Ed Bye
Feat. Harry Enfield, Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans; Feature–length version of a sketch from Harry Enfield's comedy show that dresses up the late–thirtysomething and cohort Kathy Burke in…
Kevin's Guide to Being a Teenager (TV Series) (2000): Dir. Dewi Humphreys
Feat. Harry Enfield; Kevin (Harry Enfield) and his odd–bird disciple Perry, two disaffected, DJ–worshipping teens, give us the run–down on how to hate…
Kombi Nation (2000): Dir. Grant Lahood
Feat. Gentiane Lupi, Jason Whyte, Loren Taylor (Horsley)…; Four young Kiwis embark on a troubled comic road trip around Europe in the iconic Kombi van. Lupi plays a beer–swilling lass who, fresh from…
Liam (2000): Dir. Stephen Frears
Feat. Anthony Borrows, Ian Hart, Claire Hackett; Exploring an Irish childhood made grim by Roman Catholicism, this is like a more intimate ANGELA’S ASHES, governed as it is by the point of view of…
Loser (2000): Dir. Amy Heckerling
Feat. Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Greg Kinnear; AMERICAN PIE's Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari lend appeal and chemistry to this straightforward geek–gets–girl film from genre veteran, Amy…
O (Othello) (2000): Dir. Tim Blake Nelson
Feat. Josh Hartnett, Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles; Continuing recent trends, this ‘updating’ of Shakespeare’s ”Othello” transfers the dialogue and setting into the US schoolyard, where Josh…
Platform (Zhantai) (2000): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; Taking its title from a Chinese hit rock song of the 80s, this fetchingly spare epic meditates on the changes of that turbulent decade and the…
Railway Children, The (2000): Dir. Catherine Morshead
Feat. Jenny Agutter, Michael Kitchen, Richard Attenborough; Reviving Edith Nesbit’s classic turn–of–the–century tale of three siblings displaced to the English countryside is this freshly…
Road Trip (2000): Dir. Todd Phillips
Feat. Tom Green; How you take this sophomoric comedy depends on your appreciation of the bizarro hi–jinks of MTV 'personality' Tom Green, or just plain how old…
Save the Last Dance (2000): Dir. Thomas Carter
Feat. Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas; Unhappy with her move from mid–west to a black area of Chicago, Julia Stiles seeks dance–stage salvation. Her saviour arrives in the form…
Scary Movie (2000): Dir. Keenan Ivory Wayans
Feat. Anna Faris, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans; A mostly on–target spoof of SCREAM and its progeny from the Wayans' Brothers, the comic clan still most noted for their 'In Living Colour' TV…
Scream 3 (2000): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette…; Less comic than before but otherwise it's more ironic psycho–trouble on the Woodsboro lot for regulars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David…
Skulls, The (2000): Dir. Rob Cohen
Feat. Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, Craig T. Nelson; In the bowels of an Ivy League Campus, is an elite, secret society that entices young men with luxury trappings and primes them for important…
There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000): Dir. John Hay
Feat. Lewis McKenzie, Robert Carlyle, Gina McKee…; Feelgood hit about one boy's quest for football fame in the estates of Manchester, where he emerges from the school–of–hard–knocks…
Where the Heart Is (2000): Dir. Matt Williams
Feat. Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing; A likeable chick flick tracking Natalie Portman's path from pregnant, jilted trailer–trash, towards some kind of happiness. The movie's…
Yolngu Boy (2000): Dir. Stephen Johnson
Feat. Jack Thompson; Three contrasting aboriginal boys from Arnhem Land, North Australia undertake a harsh journey out of loyalty when the petrol–sniffing habits of…
10 Things I Hate About You (1999): Dir. Gil Junger
Feat. Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles; Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is shrink–wrapped as '90s high–school hi–jinks. A protective Dad forbids his nubile daughter…
Attack the Gas Station (1999): Dir. Sang-Jin Kim
Feat. Sung-jae Lee, Oh-seong Yu, Seong-jin Kang…; Four disaffected youths take hostage an entire gas station in this subversive, blackly–comic masterpiece from Korea. Gleefully tearing apart…
Beach, The (1999): Dir. Danny Boyle
Feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton; Tapping the moods of young travellers of today and their restless wanderlust, this adaptation of Alex Garland's Gen–X novel is both…
Best Laid Plans (1999): Dir. Mike Barker
Feat. Reese Witherspoon, Alessandro Nivoli, Josh Brolin; A chain of outrageous twists carry out from a questionable set up – a one night stand that ends with accusations of date rape for a…
Black and White (1999): Dir. James Toback
Feat. Robert Downey Jnr., Brooke Shields, Wu Tang Clan…; Risk–taking ensemble drama from the maverick dir. of TWO GUYS AND A GIRL and FINGERS, set in a Manhattan where rich white kids clash with the…
Blair Witch Project, The (1999): Dir. Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez
Feat. Heather Donahue, Michael C Williams, Joshua Leonard; The most profitable film in history on a cost–to–gross basis, this handycam horror struck paydirt thanks to a swag of resourcefulness and…
Boys Don't Cry (1999): Dir. Kimberly Peirce
Feat. Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Brendon Sexton III; Widely touted dramatisation of the true–life 'Brandon Teena' tragedy set in the grim badlands of America's Midwest, where a teenage girl…
Bumblebee Flies Anyway, The (1999): Dir. Martin Duffy
Feat. Elijah Wood, Janeane Garofalo, Rachael Leigh Cook; Romantic coming–of–age drama of a teen suffering from amnesia attempting to piece his life back together with the help of his fellow…
Butterfly's Tongue (La lengua de las mariposas) (1999): Dir. Jose Luis Cuerda
Feat. Fernando Fernan Gomez, Manuel Lozano; Heartwarming Spanish coming–of–age drama set in Galicia in 1936. Against the backdrop of the encroaching Spanish Civil War, a shy…
Carrie 2: The Rage (1999): Dir. Katt Shea
Feat. Emily Bergl; The secondary school system gets another dousing in pigs–blood in this less–sequel–more–remake of the Brian DePalma original…
Cruel Intentions (1999): Dir. Roger Kumble
Feat. Sarah Michelle Geller, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon; Spoiled and randy step–siblings Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Phillipe raise the amorality stakes by betting that he can deflower the prim…
Detroit Rock City (1999): Dir. Adam Rifkin
Feat. Edward Furlong, Giuseppe Andrews, James DeBello…; In 1978, Edward Furlong and his garage band pals are perhaps the most devoted KISS fans in the world, but the road to see their idols in concert is…
Dick (1999): Dir. Andrew Fleming
Feat. Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams; A political satire as faux–history lesson, this kitsch–nostalgic pageant proffers two teenage girls as the mysterious informants known as…
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999): Dir. Michael Patrick Jann
Feat. Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Kirstie Alley…; The 'mock documentary' format entirely befits the story of rabidly ambitious young debutantes vying for local representation in the Miss Teen…
Election (1999): Dir. Alexander Payne
Feat. Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon; Mid–life crisis intersects with teenage foibles in this cheerily cynical high–school tale for adults, as crumpled teacher Matthew…
Faculty, The (1999): Dir. Robert Rodriguez
Feat. Jordana Brewster, Clea Duvall, Laura Harris…; The writer of SCREAM gives post–modern surgery to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, setting it on a high–school campus, of…
Freaks and Geeks (TV Series) (1999): Dir. Judd Apatow
Feat. Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Jason Segel…; Much loved but unfortunately short lived classic about two distinct groups of teenagers dealing with high school in the eighties. Created by a…
Girl (1999): Dir. Jonathan Kahn
Feat. Dominique Swain; Hybrid of the teen–flick with grunge–rock movie, starring Dominique Swain (LOLITA) as a brainy virgin who decides to fall in with some…
Go (1999): Dir. Doug Liman
Feat. Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr…; The director of SWINGERS switches focus to the reckless chic of LA's twentysomething rave scene, brandishing a slew of racy taboos, an impossibly…
Idle Hands (1999): Dir. Rodman Flender
Feat. Seth Green, Devon Sawa, Elden Henson; An evil spirit moves from person to person, afflicting only a single hand, which proceeds to wreak five–fingered carnage. High–school…
Looking for Alibrandi (1999): Dir. Kate Woods
Feat. Pia Miranda, Greta Scacchi, Anthony LaPaglia; Refreshing rites of passage tale from Australia, based by screenwriter Melina Marchetta's on her bestselling novel. In mixing a which guy is best…
Mod Squad, The (1999): Dir. Scott Silver
Feat. Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps; In LA Clubland Claire Danes and fellow teen–delinquents Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps, are pressed into a crime–fighting role, proceeding…
Never Been Kissed (1999): Dir. Raja Gosnell
Feat. Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Leelee Sobieski; A 25yr old cub–reporter, Drew Barrymore must surmount her teenage fears of being uncool when she goes undercover to a high–school to…
Pecker (1999): Dir. John Waters
Feat. Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor…; Edward Furlong is niftily cast as Pecker, an innocent teen amateur photographer who unwittingly becomes the toast of the art world, thereby inviting…
Pups (1999): Dir. Ash
Feat. Burt Reynolds; A frustrated thirteen–year–old comes across the family firearm, prompting him to hold up the local bank with his reluctant girlfriend in…
Ratcatcher (1999): Dir. Lynne Ramsay
Feat. William Eadie; Set during the 1970s garbage strike in Glasgow, this intensely stylish though sombre Scottish childhood tragedy features an unusual mix of the…
Room for Romeo Brass, A (1999): Dir. Shane Meadows
Feat. Paddy Considine; This extraordinary coming–of–age story places two twelve–year–old boys in the company of a well–meaning but…
Sample People (1999): Dir. Clinton Smith
Feat. Kylie Minogue, Ben Mendelsohn; Four groups of Sydney–siders sample the city's wares on a hot summer weekend in this hi–energy, determinedly funky Aussie youth pic that…
Skipped Parts (1999): Dir. Tamra Davis
Feat. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bug Hall, Brad Renfro…; Set in the early 1960s, this begins as a typical coming–of–age comedy, with Jennifer Jason Leigh and her son shifting to Smalltown, USA…
SLC Punk! (1999): Dir. James Merendino
Feat. Matthew Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish; Based on a comic strip, this cartoonish comedy follows the ‘rebellious’ antics of Stevo and friends, the only punks in arch–conservative…
Strange Fits of Passion (1999): Dir. Elise McCredie
Feat. Michela Noonan; On a quest to lose her virginity, break out of the rut and gain some life–experience, Michela Noonan goes after a reclusive…
Summer of Sam (1999): Dir. Spike Lee
Feat. John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino…; Getting some distance from his usual street–scene, Spike Lee lets off a real firecracker of a film, set during the heatwave summer of 1977,…
Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999): Dir. Kevin Williamson
Feat. Helen Mirren, Marisa Couglan, Barry Thomas…; Falsely accused of cheating, bright spark student Katie Holmes and pals resort to holding the vindictive teacher responsible to ransom, but…
Tribe, The (TV Series) (1999-2003): Set in an post–apocalyptic future where all adults have been wiped out by a virus and children must fend for themselves by ganging up together,…
Varsity Blues (1999): Dir. Brian Robbins
Feat. James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight; Reluctant star quarterback James Van Der Beek (from TV's Dawson's Creek) takes a stand against team coach Jon Voight's voracious pursuit of sporting…
Virtual Sexuality (1999): Dir. Nick Hurran
Feat. Laura Fraser; Putting a digital spin on the tried–and–true 'perfect–partner' concept, we have teen Laura Fraser so anxious to lose her virginity…
Whiteboys (1999): Dir. Marc Levin
Feat. Danny Hoch, Dash Mihok, Mark Webber…; Wannabe honky rappers Danny Hoch, Dash Mihok and Mark Webber take their many–times–removed Iowa version of hiphop to the streets of…
200 Cigarettes (1998): Dir. Risa Bramon Garcia
Feat. Ben Affleck, Martha Plimpton, Jay Mohr…; An all–youth ensemble sample some Big Apple nightlife in the last remaining hours of 1981 before mingling at a precarious loft party.…
54 (1998): Dir. Mark Christopher
Feat. Mike Myers, Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek…; Glittering, puffed–up retro–piece centres around the quintessential New York disco spot, Studio 54, and appropriately cruises on an empty…
Acid House, The (1998): Dir. Paul McGuigan
Feat. Stephen McCole, Maurice Roeves, Garry Sweeney; Those with a taste for undiluted Irvine Welsh (author of TRAINSPOTTING) will find warts–and–all satisfaction in this portmanteau of three…
American History X (1998): Dir. Tony Kaye
Feat. Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Stacy Keach…; Potent dissertation on generational anger among the skinhead community of Los Angeles' Venice Beach, that though flawed by brushes with cliche, is a…
Butcher Boy, The (1998): Dir. Neil Jordan
Feat. Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw; Despairing yet distinctive black comedy depicts the insanity implicit in a boy's view of his small town in Ireland, circa 1962. Adopts a lurid…
Can't Hardly Wait (1998): Dir. Deborah Kaplan
Feat. Jennifer Love Hewitt; Getting good party–points out of the classic formula, this perky high–school comedy unravels the limited world–views of its…
Dawson's Creek (TV Series) (1998-2002): Dir. Rodman Flender, Arvin Brown
Feat. Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams…; The popular post–modern teen melodrama created by the writer of SCREAM, Kevin Williamson. On tape – two favourite episodes: ‘The…
Dead Man's Curve (1998): Dir. Dan Rosen
Feat. Matthew Lillard, Keri Russell, Dana Delaney; Taking malicious advantage of a school–policy loophole, two desperate students conspire to dress up the murder of their room–mate as a…
Disturbing Behaviour (1998): Dir. David Nutter
Feat. James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl; Reincarnating THE STEPFORD WIVES for the SCREAM–generation finds the troublemakers of Cradle Bay High strangely changing one by one into…
Felicity (TV Series) (1998): Dir. Matt Reeves
Feat. Keri Russell; Mousy high–school graduate Russell follows her heart (i.e. the boy she has a crush on) to college in New York City, in this sweetly engaging…
Great Expectations (1998): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft…; Bold revamp of the Charles Dickens classic traces the inter–twining fortunes of Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, orphans linked via a murky…
Halloween H20 (1998): Dir. Steve Miner
Feat. Jamie Lee Curtis; Or Halloween Twenty Years Later, adjourns from the original classic, undistracted by the whole lamentable trail of sequels (six at last count).…
He Got Game (1998): Dir. Spike Lee
Feat. Denzel Washington; Those persistent bugbears about race and personal responsibility hold centre–court again for writer–director Spike Lee in this…
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1998): Dir. Jim Gillespie
Feat. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Geller; A slick teen horror outing from the writer of SCREAM gives an ironic lift to several old Urban Legends, only this time with a straight…
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998): Dir. Danny Cannon
Feat. Jennifer Love Hewitt; While unpredictable in its specifics, this sequel follows the same straight–faced, moderately scary path as its predecessor. Jennifer Love…
Jawbreaker (1998): Dir. Darren Stein
Feat. Rose McGowan; A trio of teen–queens (incl. Rose McGowan), used to inflicting tongue–lashings on their classmates go onto the back foot when they…
Opposite of Sex, The (1998): Dir. Don Roos
Feat. Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow…; Teenage tearaway Christina Ricci sets off a wild goose chain of frantically convoluted events when she steals her gay half–brother's boyfriend…
Outside Providence (1998): Dir. Michael Corrente
Feat. Alec Baldwin; The Farrelly Brothers venture towards the deeper end of comedy with a, by turns, idiosyncratic and witless farce about a 70s era teen–stoner…
Party Monster - The Shockumentary (1998): Dir. Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato; Compulsively sordid true story of one Michael Alig, whose success as a New York night club impresario devolved into drug abuse and the brutal murder…
Phantoms (1998): Dir. Joe Chappelle
Feat. Joanna Going, Rose McGowan, Ben Affleck…; Dropping in on a remote town with no apparent inhabitants, babe sisters Joanna Going and Rose McGowan find themselves on the sinister skids. Ben…
Pleasantville (1998): Dir. Gary Ross
Feat. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy…; A pair of nineties teenagers are beamed into a starched black and white 50s TV show, where their modern 'freedoms' gradually liberate/corrupt the…
Rushmore (1998): Dir. Wes Anderson
Feat. Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams; Bamboozling minds everywhere is this oblique comedy from Wes Anderson (BOTTLE ROCKET), re–envisioning that Hollywood mainstay, Highschool USA,…
She's All That (1998): Dir. Robert Iscove
Feat. Freddie Prinze Jnr., Anna Paquin; Charisma of rising star Freddie Prinze Jnr. (a less affected Keanu Reeves) relieves some of the predictability of this high–school variation of…
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998): Dir. Tamara Jenkins
Feat. Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin; A New York teen comes of age while being dragged around various LA hovels by her poor–schmuck father (Alan Arkin) and her two irritating…
Stella Does Tricks (1998): Dir. Coky Giedroyc
Feat. Kelly MacDonald; Worldly teenage prostitute Stella escapes the paternal clutches of her pimp to reclaim herself and find companionship in a sympathetic young junkie.…
Urban Legend (1998): Dir. Jamie Blanks
Feat. Alicia Witt, Danielle Harris; A serial killer is offing students in the manner of various urban legends (grisly rumours that become so commonly known they're accepted as fact).…
Whatever (1998): Dir. Susan Skoog
Feat. Lisa Weil; Beset by apathy, uncertainty and her indulgent best friend, a teenage girl falls victim to her own adolescence while trying to complete her final…
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (Tian yu) (1998): Dir. Joan Chen
Feat. Li Xiaolu; Coming–of–age story set in the 70's about a teenage girl who is sent to the countryside during the "Down to the Countryside" Movement in…
Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star, The (1998): Dir. Sheree Folkson, Kieron Walsh
Feat. Ciaran McMenamin, Simone Lahbib, Nicole Stapleton…; Young persons are the target of the whimsical Scottish TV series following the fortunes of an eclectic rock group who go from garage nobodies to gain…
All Over Me (1997): Dir. Alex Sichel
Feat. Alison Folland, Tara Subkoff, Cole Hauser…; A lesbian festival hit that has 'crossover' hit written all over it, as it persuasively pinpoints some of the universal, intense emotions of…
Blackrock (1997): Dir. Steve Vidler
Feat. Nichole Avramidis, George Basha, Gina Bortolin; Pitching headlong into the Newcastle surfie/petrol–head scene, this forthright Aussie drama (taken from a stageplay) scrutinises the community…
Daria (TV Series) (1997-2002): Derisive cult animation series starring the ultimate high school anti–heroine – Daria Morgendorffer – a bookish student who keeps…
Going to School with Dad on My Back (Bei qi baba shangxue) (1997): Dir. Youchou Zhou; Straightforwardly touching tale of a young boy, who with the help of his selfless family, graduates from his impoverished Malian River village to the…
Hurricane Streets (1997): Dir. Morgan J. Freeman
Feat. Brendon Sexton III, Antoine McLean; The excellent Brendan Sexton III (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE) does a sympathetic about–turn for this unflashy take on teenage delinquency. It…
La Vie de Jesus (Life of Jesus) (1997): Dir. Bruno Dumont; Virtuoso bleakness from the dir. of TWENTYNINE PALMS, in his debut study of alienated existence for a group of unruly skinheads in rural Flanders who…
Last of the High Kings (1997): Dir. David Keating
Feat. Jared Leto, Christina Ricci, Gabriel Byrne…; An irreverent flashback to late 70s Dublin, where Jared Leto ducks the familiar teenage troubles: girls, school and eccentric relations. Strong cast,…
Nowhere (1997): Dir. Gregg Araki
Feat. James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton…; Final installment of Gregg Araki's teen apocalypse' trilogy, trawling the teenage shallowlands of L.A. in a kind of R–rated flip to Beverly…
Slab Boys, The (1997): Dir. John Byrne
Feat. Russell Barr, Bill Gardiner, Robin Laing…; A quiff–headed rites–of–passage in dead–end 1950s Scotland, follows three apprentice dripheads at a carpet factory and their…
Suburbia (1997): Dir. Richard Linklater
Feat. Giovanni Ribisi, Parker Posey, Steve Zahn…; Dir. Linklater returns to his favourite milieu – the teen angst movie – only this time working from someone else's material, a play by…
Sugar Factory, The (1997): Dir. Robert Carter
Feat. Matt Day; The director adapts his novel about a disturbed Aussie teenager (Matt Day) searching for love and meaning in his life after a string of traumatic…
Trojan War (1997): Dir. George Huang
Feat. Will Friedle, Jennifer Love Hewitt; Comic misadventures beset a young turk who scours the town in search of a condom in order to consummate with the ready–and–willing girl…
True Love and Chaos (1997): Dir. Stavros Andonis Efthymiou
Feat. Ben Mendelsohn, Noah Taylor, Miranda Otto; A half–baked script straight out of the same Melbourne film school that produced LOVE & OTHER CATASTROPHES leaves an Aussie brat–pack…
Twin Town (1997): Dir. Kevin Allen
Feat. Llyr Ifans, Rhys Ifans, Dorien Thomas…; The creators of TRAINSPOTTING lend their executive stamp to this anarchic tale of village dysfunction, set in a quiet Welsh community. Crooked…
Unknown Pleasures / Xiao Wu (1997-2002): Dir. Jia Zhang-ke
Feat. Zhao Tao; Two astonishing features from gifted 'sixth generation' Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang–ke (PLATFORM, THE WORLD); his terrain the onset of popular…
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Romeo + Juliet) (1997): Dir. Baz Luhrmann
Feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Pete Postlethwaite…; Visionary director Baz Luhrmann takes his STRICTLY BALLROOM crew to the Americas and conjures a cinematic universe of striking originality and…
Beavis and Butthead Do America (1996): Dir. Mike Judge; The flagrantly antisocial, hormonally over–charged MTV duo embark on a fea ture–length odyssey to recover their all–important TV…
Bonjour Timothy (1996): Dir. Wayne Tourell
Feat. Dean O'Gorman, Sabine Karsenti, Angela Bloomfield; Dean O'Gorman and Sabine Karsenti get a dose of culture shock as international exchange students in this Kiwi–French Canadian…
Boys (1996): Dir. Stacy Cochran
Feat. Lukas Haas, Winona Ryder; Downbeat, murky tale of adolescent intrigues has high scholar Lukas Haas becoming entangled in the mysterious past of accident victim Winona Ryder.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) - Season 1 (1996): Dir. Bruce Seth Green, Joss Whedon
Feat. Sarah Michelle Gellar; The TV followup to the 1992 movie, that slays its predecessor in wit and cult–appeal. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the high–school teen…
Campfire Tales (1996): Dir. David Semel, Martin Kunert, Matt Cooper
Feat. Jay R. Ferguson, Christine Taylor, Christopher Masterson…; Urban legends pervade a trilogy of spook stories that emanate from a roadside breakdown. Some competent storytelling is undone by an irritatingly…
Craft, The (1996): Dir. Andrew Fleming
Feat. Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell…; The director of THREESOME conjures a fast–paced and slick tale of teenage outcasts who prefer to look pretty in black than pink. It's a dark…
Enid Blyton - Island of Adventure (TV Series) (1996): Dir. Peter Rose; Volume 1) A fearless foursome of intrepid kids and a parrot, fossick around in a seaside setting, uncovering old smuggling caves and a…
Fear (1996): Dir. James Foley
Feat. Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, Alyssa Milano…; Thriller from the Hollywood cookie–cutter about a chaste Daddy's girl who gets involved with creep Mark Wahlberg, who just gets creepier by…
High School High (1996): Dir. Hart Bochner
Feat. Jon Lovitz, Louise Fletcher; THE NAKED GUN parody–squad punish the college delinquent genre (DANGEROUS MINDS, HIGHER LEARNING etc). Jokes mainly aim below the belt, and…
Loaded (1996): Dir. Anna Campion
Feat. Oliver Milburn, Dearbhla Molloy, Danny Cunningham…; Fans of Trainspotting will connect with this compelling snapshot of the E–generation – an acid–inflected psychodrama that unfolds…
Love and Other Catastrophes (1996): Dir. Emma-Kate Croghan
Feat. Frances O’Connor, Alice Garner, Radha Mitchell…; The indie success story of '96 was made by 23–year–old Croghan on a shoestring with her Melbourne film school buddies. Love is a…
Scream (1996): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich…; The horror genre gets a long overdue (if tongue–in–cheek) revamp but you needn't be an aficionado to experience the thrill of this…
Size of Watermelons, The (1996): Dir. Kari Skogland
Feat. Paul Rudd, Ione Skye; Bored college geek Paul Rudd rivals his peers' lofty ambitions to be rock stars by deciding on a whim to become a film–maker. Essentially a…
Small Faces (1996): Dir. Gillies MacKinnon
Feat. Iain Robertson, Joseph McFadden; An anti–nostalgic hark back to the mean streets of late '60s Glasgow into which a wee spotty lad becomes unwittingly drawn. Eschewing the…
This Life (TV Series) (1996-1997): Feat. Jack Davenport, Ramon Tikaram; Subdued but truthful drama set around the 1990s conflicts, problems, successes and romances of a crowd of young London urbanites – mainly…
To Sir With Love 2 (1996): Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Lulu , Judy Geeson; Sequel to the 1967 classic, with Sidney Poitier returning as the teacher dealing with unruly and disadvantaged students, this time in a…
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996): Dir. Todd Solondz
Feat. Heather Matarazzo, Victoria Davis; Winner of the grand prize at Sundance '96, this is a blackly comic portrait of a dreaded kind of coming–of–age. Teenage persecution and…
Angus (1995): Dir. Patrick Johnson
Feat. Charlie Talbert, Kathy Bates, Rita Moreno…; Angus, the uncoolest geek in school, gets his big chance at popularity and girlfriends. Unsentimental and geniunely funny boyhood tale, with Kathy…
Basketball Diaries, The (1995): Dir. Scott Calvert
Feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Juliette Lewis…; Leonardo DiCaprio excels as a young Jim Carroll, an infamous New York poet/musician/junkie who maintained a personal journal through a…
Circle of Friends (1995): Dir. Pat O'Connor
Feat. Minnie Driver, Chris O'Donnell; Catholicism and blossoming sexuality come into conflict when ugly–duckling Minnie Driver goes gooey over preppie Chris O'Donnell and chooses to…
Clueless (1995): Dir. Amy Heckerling
Feat. Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Stacey Dash…; This nifty spoof of '90s Californian teen culture will speak volumes to its generation, who are sure to remember this passionately in years to come.…
Cure, The (1995): Dir. Peter Horton
Feat. Joseph Mazzello, Brad Renfro, Annabella Sciorra…; A touching story about two pre–teen boys, one of whom has AIDS, who venture to New Orleans on a raft to track down a miracle cure they read…
Dangerous Minds (1995): Dir. John N. Smith
Feat. Michelle Pfeiffer; Every generation needs a teacher–transforms–the–juvenile–delinquent chestnut, and consequently this film will appeal to those…
Delinquent (1995): Dir. Peter Hall
Feat. Desmond Devenish, Shawn Batten, Jeff Paul; The dysfunctional initiation into adulthood of a 15–year–old in a rural East Coast backwater. Atmospheric, with a groovy soundtrack by…
Doom Generation, The (1995): Dir. Gregg Araki
Feat. James Duval, Rose McGowan, Johnathon Schaech; The boundaries of good taste are demolished in this white–trash road movie obsessed with teenage sex and scatology. The joke turns cruel in the…
Empire Records (1995): Dir. Allan Moyle
Feat. Liv Tyler, Robin Tunney, Rory Cochrane; Multiple crises present themselves for the teenage staff of a swanky independent record store about to be consumed by a corporate chain. Utterly…
Flight of the Albatross (1995): Dir. Werner Meyer
Feat. Julia Brendler, Jack Thompson; Teenager Julia Brendler migrates from Germany to New Zealand to renuite with her mother, a scientist studying the albatross colony on a remote island.
Fresh (1995): Dir. Boaz Yakin
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson; The best, and dare we say it, freshest, of the Black–American street fables to emerge in recent years, a fascinating story evolves from a young…
Hackers (1995): Dir. Iain Softley
Feat. Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford…; Cyber–thriller accesses the Gen–X mindframe, with bluff Web–babble, Internet–criminals and environmentalism, all blended to a…
Kids (1995): Dir. Larry Clark
Feat. Leo Fitzpatrick, Sarah Henderson, Justin Pierce…; Cult photographer Larry Clark's debut, 24hrs of New York streetkid life, attracted immediate controversy. The unblinking depictions of sex, drugs and…
La Haine (Hate) (1995): Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui…; A distinctive French urban crime drama in which the idle hands of male youth form fisticuffs on mean urban streets. A whole lot punchier, intelligent…
Powder (1995): Dir. Victor Salva
Feat. Mary Steenburgen, Sean Patrick Flannery, Lance Henriksen; Teenage alienation is given a supernatural charge in this story of a terminally–isolated, albino–like youth with metaphysical…
S.F.W. (1995): Dir. Jefery Levy
Feat. Stephen Dorff, Reese Witherspoon; Based on a significant Gen–X novel, Stephen Dorff plays Cliff Spab, a teenage loser who garners a major cult following as a hostage in a…
Death of a Cheerleader (A Friend to Die For) (1994): Dir. William A. Graham
Feat. Tori Spelling, Valerie Harper, Kellie Martin; Enjoyably trashy true story in which a mousy Catholic girl transfers to a public school and desperately attempts to befriend the most popular girl in…
Fun (1994): Dir. Rafal Zielinski
Feat. Renee Humphrey, Alicia Witt; Two teenage girls just want to have fun, but their obsessive pursuit of it leads them to murder an old lady for no other reason. This remarkable…
Imaginary Crimes (1994): Dir. Anthony Drazan
Feat. Harvey Keitel, Kelly Lynch, Fairuza Balk…; Con–man Harvey Keitel attempts to raise two daughters after their mother dies, and struggles to reconcile the demands of parenthood with his…
Metal Skin (1994): Dir. Geoffrey Wright
Feat. Aiden Young, Tara Morice, Ben Mendelsohn; A petrol–soaked, despairing love story from the director of ROMPER STOMPER, who takes another look at Australian youth counter–culture…
Muriel's Wedding (1994): Dir. P.J. Hogan
Feat. Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter; Crowd–pleasing suburban fairy tale replays the ugly duckling motif and kitsch comedy from STRICTLY BALLROOM, but gone is the modest charm…
My So-Called Life (TV Series) (1994-1995): Dir. Scott Winant
Feat. Claire Danes, Jared Leto, Bess Armstrong…; Hard–hitting drama series starring a young Claire Danes in her breakout role as a 15 year–old dealing with angst–ridden teen…
Only the Brave (1994): Dir. Ana Kokkinos
Feat. Elena Mandalis, Dora Kaskanis, Maud Davey; Gritty portrait of a bleak rite–of–passage for two Greek girls in the wasteland of suburban Melbourne. Succinct feature possesses a…
Pcu: Pit Party (1994): Dir. Hart Bochner
Feat. Jeremy Piven, David Spade, Jessica Walter…; Boisterous, ANIMAL HOUSE–style campus comedy takes an unabashed poke at that '90s catch–cry – 'political correctness'. Beer…
Reality Bites (1994): Dir. Ben Stiller
Feat. Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller; This 'Gen X' movie works as romantic comedy but falls short of its mandate to be a mouthpiece for contemporary youth. Redeemed by the…
Stoned Age, The (1994): Dir. James Melkonian
Feat. Michael Kopelow, Bradford Tatum; PC–free teen comedy set in the hazy '70s is no DAZED AND CONFUSED but it is entertaining in a knucklehead kinda way. Plot involves two friends…
Threesome (1994): Dir. Andrew Fleming
Feat. Lara Flynn Boyle, Stephen Baldwin, Josh Charles; Despite its prurient title, there is much more meat and maturity in this this 'Gen–X' romantic sandwich than the higher profile REALITY BITES.…
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes; Ingenious post–script to the tired NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. franchise in which castmembers of the previous films (playing themselves), too, become…
Alex (1993): Dir. Megan Simpson
Feat. Lauren Jackson, Chris Haywood, Josh Picker; Fact–based story about teenager Alex Archer, who overcame rivalry and tragedy to win selection for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Evocative of…
Amy Fisher Story, The (1993): Dir. Andy Tennant
Feat. Drew Barrymore; Telemovie depiction of the notorious Long Island high–school student whose activities as a violent criminal and teenage prostitute climaxed…
Beavis and Butthead (TV Series) (1993-1997): Dir. Mike Judge; Once rejected by our television networks on moral grounds, this might've been your only chance to catch America's favourite miscreants in animated…
Clerks (1993): Dir. Kevin Smith
Feat. Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes…; Made for $27,000 in the convenience store where the director (then) worked, this follows a rude and bizarre day in the lives of two lowly grocery…
Dazed and Confused (1993): Dir. Richard Linklater
Feat. Jason London, Rory Cochrane, Matthew McConaughey…; Set on campus in 1976, this is a marvellous youth–movie/nostalgia–trip which treats the hopelessly insignificant as a source of constant…
Far Off Place, A (1993): Dir. Mikael Soloman
Feat. Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Randall, Jack Thompson…; Quality drama follows two teenagers across the African desert after they witness a poacher's deadly assault. Superb location photography, but maybe…
Heartbreak Kid, The (1993): Dir. Michael Jenkins
Feat. Alex Dimitriades; Alex Dimitriades plays a hunky college student who becomes romantically entangled with his 22–year–old teacher. Sensitively drawn…
King of the Hill (1993): Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Feat. Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbe, Lisa Eichhorn…; A bleak yet exquisitely crafted tale of a Jewish boy living in depression–era St. Louis, left to fend for himself in a run–down hotel. It…
My Father, the Hero (1993): Dir. Steve Miner
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Katherine Heigl, Lauren Hutton; Innocuous English language retread of MON PERE CE HEROS, with Gerard Depardieu in the title role he played in the original.
Searching for Bobby Fischer (Innocent Moves) (1993): Dir. Steven Zaillian
Feat. Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley; Sensitive film about a nine–year–old boy with a special gift for chess. Some poignant moments about parental expectations and the price…
Secrets (1993): Dir. Michael Pattinson
Feat. Noah Taylor, Willa O'Neill; During the Beatles' Melbourne tourdate of 1964, four Beatle–maniacs and an Elvis fan find themselves trapped together in a hotel basement,…
Shopping (1993): Dir. Paul Anderson
Feat. Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Jonathan Pryce; Joy–riding, shop–looting youths cruise the neon–lit urban squalors of Northern England. Realism is bypassed in favour of a visual…
Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1993): Dir. Masayuki Suo
Feat. Masahiro Motoki, Misa Shimizu, Naoto Takenaka; Unabashed low–brow comedy about a gang of misfits who tussle it out in a Tokyo University wrestling ring, which also serves as the circle in…
Swing Kids (1993): Dir. Thomas Carter
Feat. Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, Frank Whaley; Affecting drama about the young sub–culture of pre–war Germany, who traded Nazi–ism for American jazz culture. A rare insight into…
This Boy's Life (1993): Dir. Michael Caton-Jones
Feat. Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio; An exemplary bittersweet nostalgia piece based on the autobiography of Tobias Wolfe. Sheer craft elevates the sombre material, with Robert De Niro,…
Totally F***ed Up (1993): Dir. Gregg Araki
Feat. James Duval, Roko Belic, Susan Behshid…; A corrosive portrait of a group of alienated gay comrades, and the first (and perhaps best) part of dir. Araki's 'teen apocalypse trilogy' (completed…
Wayne's World 2 (1993): Dir. Stephen Surjik
Feat. Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken…; Party time for Mike Myers and Dana Carvey again in this not–quite–so–excellent sequel.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993): Dir. Lasse Hallstrom
Feat. Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio…; An off–beat delight that's quirky take on tin–pot America is never at the expense of its truthfulness or poignancy. The ballad of the…
When a Stranger Calls Back (1993): Dir. Fred Walton
Feat. Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Jill Schoelen; Sequel to the 1979 classic WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, with the same director and much of the same cast. Babysitter Julia is looking after two kids…
Class Act (1992): Dir. Randall Miller
Feat. Meshach Taylor, Rick Ducommun; Funky feature with HOUSE PARTY rap act Kid 'n' Play as a straight–A student and street–wise homeboy who have their identities switched at…
Crush (1992): Dir. Alison Maclean
Feat. Marcia Gay Harden; A downbeat analysis of female personal politics, with Marcia Gay Harden, an American vixen in Rotorua who neglects her dear friend recently paralysed…
Doppelganger (1992): Dir. Avi Nesher
Feat. Drew Barrymore; Drew Barrymore plays an innocent who moves in with a budding horror scriptwriter – ultimately providing him with plenty of source material.…
Encino Man (California Man) (1992): Dir. Les Mayfield
Feat. Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser, Pauly Shore; Debut vehicle for MTV guru Shore about a youthful cave–man who becomes an unlikely fraternity hero when he is awakened in contemporary L.A.
Guncrazy (1992): Dir. Tamra Davis
Feat. Drew Barrymore, James LeGros, Billy Drago…; Drew Barrymore and James LeGros are tearaway teens who find solace in each other, but together sink further into the mire of trouble. Maturely…
Long Day Closes, The (1992): Dir. Terence Davies
Feat. Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormack, Anthony Watson; The director follows up DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES with a more optimistic but just as dream–like portrait of working–class life in '50s…
Midnight Clear, A (1992): Dir. Keith Gordon
Feat. Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross…; A provocative, suspenseful anti–war parable about a fresh–faced American platoon assigned to an abandoned chateau near the German border…
Mima (1992): Dir. Philomene Esposito
Feat. Nino Manfredi, Margarita Lozano, Virginie Ledoyen; The first–time director captures the nuance and feeling of her own experience as a young girl who witnesses the mysterious disappearance of her…
Nostradamus Kid, The (1992): Dir. Bob Ellis
Feat. Noah Taylor; Noah Taylor, the charismatic geek from THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE and FLIRTING comes of age yet again, this time at the height of atomic–age…
Poison Ivy (1992): Dir. Katt Shea
Feat. Sara Gilbert, Drew Barrymore, Tom Skerritt…; An affluent family's problems escalate with the destructive influence of a teenage brat. Drew Barrymore is effortlessly convincing in the title role.
School Ties (1992): Dir. Robert Mandel
Feat. Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell…; A working–class teen hides that he is Jewish when he is awarded a scholarship to an exclusive prep school.
Singles (1992): Dir. Cameron Crowe
Feat. Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, Campbell Scott…; Despite the grungy soundtrack and the Seattle setting, this ain't a gritty depiction of long–hairs trying to put their anarchic stamp on the…
Untamed Heart (1992): Dir. Tony Bill
Feat. Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei; A fairy–tale romance kindles between a perky waitress and a kitchen–hand with a special condition. Does wonders for Christian Slater's…
Vincent and Me (1992): Dir. Michael Rubbo
Feat. Tcheky Karyo, Nina Petronzio, Christopher Forrest; A young girl learns to paint like Vincent Van Gogh and sells one of her works to an unscrupulous art dealer. You'll learn much about the Dutch master…
Waterland (1992): Dir. Stephen Gyllenhaal
Feat. Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack, Lena Headey…; Jeremy Irons plays a history teacher in America who recounts his own suppressed coming of age to his cynical students. Adapted from Graham Swift's…
Wayne's World (1992): Dir. Penelope Spheeris
Feat. Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe; Adapted from Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's Saturday Night Live TV skit, this full–length running gag makes the most of likeable loonies Wayne…
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The (TV Series) (The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones) (1992-1993): Feat. Sean Patrick Flanery; Television spin–off of the popular 1980's feature films that stage the youthful adventures of the archaeological treasure hunter as recalled by…
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991): Dir. Peter Hewitt
Feat. Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler…; Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter return as a couple of crazed teenagers who are sent on a Bogus Journey through a round trip to heaven and hell in this…
Boyz N the Hood (1991): Dir. John Singleton
Feat. Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Jr. Gooding, Ice-Cube; Sincere and authentic street gang fable focuses on a group of friends living in a black, working–class neighbourhood in South Central L.A. A…
Brighter Summer Day, A (1991): Dir. Edward Yang
Feat. Chen Chang; Sublime ode to adolescence set in early 1960's Taiwan, Edward Yang's sprawling, novelistic narrative reflects the personal and political turmoil of…
Commitments, The (1991): Dir. Alan Parker
Feat. Colm Meaney; Surprise hit simply chronicles the rise and fall of a Dublin soul band, formed by a group of teens with naught better to do. Unashamedly light fare,…
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991): Dir. Stephen Herek
Feat. Christina Applegate, Danielle Harris; Married With Children bimbo Christina Applegate stars one of a bunch of brats who have to fend for themselves when their geriatric minder carks it.…
Flirting (1991): Dir. John Duigan
Feat. Thandiwe Newton, Nicole Kidman, Noah Taylor; Award–winning sequel to THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE sensitively explores adolescent life in two single–sex high schools in rural Australia,…
Kuffs (1991): Dir. Bruce A. Evans
Feat. Christian Slater; A street–smart vehicle for (post)–teen idol Slater, who inherits a licence to kill the S.O.B. who snuffed his elder sibling.
London Kills Me (1991): Dir. Hanif Kureishi
Feat. Justin Chadwick, Stephen Mackintosh, Emer McCourt; MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE writer Kureishi directs a young ensemble for his glossy depiction of drug–dealing squatters in London's Notting Hill.…
Mystery Date (1991): Dir. Jonathan Wacks
Feat. Ethan Hawke, Teri Polo, Brian McNamara…; A big–haired Ethan Hawke stars in this zany teen comedy as a love struck teen whose older brother sets him up with the girl next door.
On My Own (1991): Dir. Antonio Tibaldi
Feat. Judy Davis; Coming–of–age tale draws a devastating performance from Judy Davis as the imbalanced mother of a fifteen–year–old boarding…
Talk 16 (1991): Dir. Janis Lundman, Adrienne Mitchell; The transition of childhood to womanhood is revealed in this intimate, candid study of five 16–year–old girls over a five year period.
Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1991): Dir. Jim Abrahams
Feat. Winona Ryder, Jeff Daniels, Frances Fisher…; Fun vehicle for Winona Ryder. Her patented awkward teen is one of the townfolk who eagerly await the homecoming of their prized celebrity, Roxy…
Beverly Hills 90210 (TV Series) (1990-2000): Dir. Tim Hunter
Feat. Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley, Tori Spelling…; In its day, compulsory viewing for teenagers, as the Beverly Hills High gang of new–faces (Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley), rich–kids…
Big Steal, The (1990): Dir. Nadia Tass
Feat. Ben Mendelsohn, Claudia Karvan; Romantic romp from the makers of MALCOLM, possesses the charm and wit that made that film memorable. Teenager Ben Mendelsohn wins a date with the…
C'est La Vie (1990): Dir. Diane Kurys
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Richard Berry; Another twee autobiographical snapshot, set at a French holiday resort in a late–'50s summer. A teenager's coming of age is marked by the…
Freshman, The (1990): Dir. Andrew Bergman
Feat. Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Penelope Ann Miller…; Chucklesome comedy finds NYC film student Broderick forced to run errands for small time mobster Brando (who does a mirror–perfect parody of…
Lord of the Flies (1990): Dir. Harry Hook
Feat. Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, James Badge Dale; Updated film version of William Golding's novel about stranded military school cadets whose instinct for survival reverts to barbarism.
Nasty Girl, The (1990): Dir. Michael Verhoeven
Feat. Lena Stolze, Hans-Reinhard Muller, Monika Baumgartner; Poignant comedy about an essay prize–winning scholar who creates community havoc when she decides to write about her home town during the Third…
Pump Up the Volume (1990): Dir. Allan Moyle
Feat. Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Annie Ross…; Christian Slater is Hard Harry, maverick pirate radio DJ by night, anonymous and shy student by day. His anarchic commentaries earn a loyal band of…
Roselyne and the Lions (1990): Dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix
Feat. Isabelle Pasco, Gerard Sandoz, Gabriel Monnet; Another visual triumph from the director of DIVA, this is an absorbing account of a teen couple's yearning to tame and perform with lions. The…
Where the Heart Is (1990): Dir. John Boorman
Feat. Uma Thurman, Crispin Glover, Dabney Coleman…; Trendy New York teens are forced out of their parents house to live in a ramshackle dump, and learn the ways of the real world. Kooky fun.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989): Dir. Stephen Herek
Feat. Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin; Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter play a couple of crazed teenagers who are sent on a Excellent Adventure, collecting famous historical figures via a…
Dead Poet's Society (1989): Dir. Peter Weir
Feat. Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke…; Robin Williams is perfect as an a maverick English teacher at a private high–school for boys, where his passion for poetry profoundly…
Delinquents, The (1989): Dir. Chris Thomson
Feat. Kylie Minogue, Charlie Schlatter, Bruno Lawrence…; Minogue graduated from her TV soap–opera days with this attempt at a serious period drama, with her and Schlatter playing lovestruck teen…
Gleaming the Cube (1989): Dir. Graeme Clifford
Feat. Christian Slater, Steven Bauer; Featuring a lead teenage role for Christian Slater, this suspense–drama follows a skateboarder’s attempts to track down his brother’s…
Heathers (1989): Dir. Michael Lehmann
Feat. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty; 'Heathers' are an elite group of glamourous, stuck–up brat–girls who gradually meet their maker courtesy of a rebel Heather (Winona…
Hush-A-Bye-Baby (1989): Dir. Margo Harkin
Feat. Seamus Ball, Rosina Brown, Sean Carlin…; Excellent portrayal, using 'workshop' methods, of the tribulations of four teenage girls in Northern Ireland, as they negotiate the local facts of…
Matter of Degrees, A (1989): Dir. W.T. Morgan
Feat. Arye Gross, Sarah Bork; Student life on a Long Island university campus, centering around the imminent commercialisation of their beloved radio station. Well–made…
Metropolitan (1989): Dir. Whit Stillman
Feat. Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Chris Eigeman; Sundance–winning arthouse hit focuses on the disappearing Manhattan debutante scene. An unknown ensemble play upper–class adolescents who…
Press Gang (TV Series) (1989-1993): Feat. Julia Sawalha, Dexter Fletcher; Much–loved British TV series follows the fortunes of a newspaper, the 'Junior Gazette', run by a troublesome crowd of teenage students in North…
Saved By The Bell (TV Series) (1989): After–school teen sit–com that helped "launch" the careers of Dustin "Screech" Diamond and 90210 vixen Tiffani–Amber Thiessen.…
Say Anything (1989): Dir. Cameron Crowe
Feat. John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney; Fresh light is cast on the East–end boy meets West–end girl scenario. Satisfying teen fare.
1969 (1988): Dir. Ernest Thompson
Feat. Kiefer Sutherland, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jnr.…; Keifer Sutherland and Winona Ryder lead a brat–pack of sensitive anti–war youths in the summer of '69.
American Gothic (1988): Dir. John Hough
Feat. Rod Steiger, Yvonne De Carlo, Sarah Torgov; Creepy psychos living on a remote isle make life hell for holiday–making teens. Sound familiar? It is, but done with a certain inventive…
Celia (1988): Dir. Ann Turner
Feat. Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie; Fans of Jane Campion should enjoy this eerie antipodean tale of a 9–year–old girl who surrenders to her nightmarish fantasies when her…
First of the Summer Wine (TV Series) (1988): Feat. David Fenwick, Paul Oldham, Paul Wyett…; Good–natured prequel to the longest running sitcom shows heroes Clegg and Compo's youth leading up to the second World War.
Fresh Horses (1988): Dir. David Anspaugh
Feat. Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald; Blue–blood collegian Andrew McCarthy falls for the wrong–side–of–the–tracks and underage Molly Ringwald. Earnest love…
Hairspray (1988): Dir. John Waters
Feat. Divine, John Waters; Divine stars in his/her final film, heading a suitably whacko cast in the first PG–rated feature from long–time mentor John Waters. A…
Mystic Pizza (1988): Dir. Donald Petrie
Feat. Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Annabeth Gish; Julia Roberts' star quality shines in this, her debut film, contrasting the love–lives of three pizza waitresses in a town called Mystic.…
Night of the Demons (1988): Dir. Kevin S. Tenney
Feat. Linnea Quigley, William Gallo; Shlocky 80's horror based around a group of high school seniors partying inside an isolated funeral parlour where they unknowingly release a demon or…
Permanent Record (1988): Dir. Marisa Silver
Feat. Keanu Reeves; Keanu Reeves stars in this slight but interesting teen drama about the effects of a suicide on a group of college friends.
Prince of Pennsylvania (1988): Dir. Ron Nyswaner
Feat. Keanu Reeves, Fred Ward, Bonnie Bedelia…; Fans of Keanu Reeves will find small delight in the hunky one cutting his teeth in this often amusing comedy as a free–spirited teenage misfit.
Satisfaction (Girls of Summer) (1988): Dir. Joan Freeman
Feat. Justine Bateman, Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson…; Flavour of the '80s, Justine Bateman (TV's FAMILY TIES), stole the limelight from her then fledgling co–star, Julia Roberts, in this hoary girl…
School Daze (1988): Dir. Spike Lee
Feat. Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn…; Spike Lee's black high–school musical is perhaps over–ambitious, but the disorder is compensated in sheer exuberance and…
She's Having a Baby (1988): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin…; Another John Hughes hit in which young Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern embark on marriage and parenthood.
Stand and Deliver (1988): Dir. Ramon Menendez
Feat. Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Andy Garcia; Rousing true story about a no–nonsense Math teacher in a tough L.A. school and his struggles to motivate his dispirited and troubled students.
Stealing Home (1988): Dir. Steven Kampmann
Feat. Mark Harmon, Blair Brown, Jonathan Silverman…; Coming–of–age romantic drama about a washed up baseball player (Mark Harmon) who finds out his childhood love (Jodie Foster) has…
21 Jump Street (TV Series) (1987-1991): Feat. Johnny Depp, Frederic Forrest, Peter DeLuise…; Iconic, lightly–rendered youth thriller series, in which four young–looking undercover cops infiltrate high schools to expose various…
Degrassi Junior High (TV Series) (1987-1991): An unusually entertaining 1980s Canadian high school drama gathered a certain cult following around its charismatic young cast and well–judged…
Dirty Dancing (1987): Dir. Emile Ardolino
Feat. Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach…; Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze set the woods on fire with their passionate dance–moves in a 1960s American holiday resort. Wildly successful…
Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, The (TV Series) (1987): Feat. Gian Sammarco, Lulu; Sue Townsend's spotty teenage creation Adrian Mole contines his rites of passage comedy drama series set in the early eighties where Adrian's Mum…
Heavy Petting (1987): Dir. Obie Benz; A nostalgic peagent to what made being a teen in the 50's as cute and corny as it was. A mix of cheesy pop music, clips from sex and drug–ed…
In Between (TV Series) (1987): Feat. Sheryl Munks, Vichea Ten, Jim Petrovski…; Acclaimed Australian TV series about troubled teenagers attempting to find their way through life in the inner city, dealing with issues like drugs,…
Less Than Zero (1987): Dir. Marek Kanievska
Feat. Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jnr., Jami Gertz…; A slick, rather thin adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ cult–novel set among the bored, coke–snorting youth of 1980s upper–crust…
Lost Boys, The (1987): Dir. Joel Schumacher
Feat. Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim…; Keifer Sutherland leads a pack of teen vampires who have a taste for fashion as well as that red liquidy stuff. A dynamic, stylish horror with a…
Near Dark (1987): Dir. Kathryn Bigelow
Feat. Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henrikson, Jenny Wright…; The blueprint vampire–in–contemporary–clothing movie about a pack of young hedonists on the urban fringes afflicted with…
Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987): Dir. Alan Clarke
Feat. Michelle Holmes, Siobhan Finneran; Frank sexuality has rarely been as squarely depicted as in this tale of two naive schoolgirls growing up in working class Liverpool. Bleak and darkly…
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987): Dir. Howard Deutch
Feat. Mary Stuart Masterson, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson; Some wonderful romantic angst from John Hughes' pen, with Mary Stuart Masterson in love with Eric Stoltz in love with Lea Thompson.
Summer School (1987): Dir. Carl Reiner
Feat. Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, Robin Thomas…; Goofy 80's High School comedy starring Mark Harman as a gym teacher with big vacation plans who reluctantly agrees to teach a summer English class…
Year My Voice Broke, The (1987): Dir. John Duigan
Feat. Noah Taylor, Ben Mendelsohn; Scrawny yet sensitive adolescent Noah Taylor can only watch as brazen older mate Ben Mendelsohn courts his dream–girl in '60s rural Australia.…
Crossroads (1986): Dir. Walter Hill
Feat. Ralph Macchio, Jami Gertz, Joe Seneca…; Great Ry Cooder music peps this light drama in which Ralph Macchio seeks lost blues tunes in the Deep South.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Matthew Broderick; Probably the teen comedy of the '80s, with Matthew Broderick as the crafty 17–year–old Ferris who skips school to takes his friends on a…
Lucas (1986): Dir. David Seltzer
Feat. Corey Haim, Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen…; Genuinely sympathetic account of the teenage love of 'dweeb' Corey Haim for an older schoolmate (Green), through infatuation, rejection and...…
Pretty in Pink (1986): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton; Molly Ringwald faces some tricky teenage dilemmas in John Hughes' quintessentially '80s rite–of–passage.
River's Edge (1986): Dir. Tim Hunter
Feat. Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye…; Terrifying drama about a group of school friends who discover that one of them has murdered a classmate. Major cult film from the '80s with its lurid…
Soul Man (1986): Dir. Steve Miner
Feat. C. Thomas Howell, Rae Dawn Chong, Arye Gross…; A privileged white student disguises himself as a black man in order to win a Harvard Law School scholarship, in this disappointing "blackface"…
Space Camp (1986): Dir. Harry Winer
Feat. Kate Capshaw, Kelly Preston, Larry B. Scott…; Good natured 80's adolescent romp in which a group of young attendees of a space camp find themselves in space for real when their shuttle is…
Surf Nazis Must Die (1986): Dir. Peter George
Feat. Gail Neely, Robert Harden, Barry Brenner; Gory battles for the beaches and waves, Troma–style. The T–shirt is better than the movie.
Weird Science (1986): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly Le Brock, Bill Paxton…; Two computer nerds generate their fantasy woman in the form of Kelly Le Brock. Innocuous teen fun.
Windrider (1986): Dir. Vincent Monton
Feat. Nicole Kidman, Tom Burlinson; A fresh–faced Nicole Kidman ditches her BMX Bandits for a buff windsurfer in this breezy teen romance.
Wraith, The (1986): Dir. Mike Marvin
Feat. Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn…; Cartoonish supernatural actioner starring Charlie Sheen as a murdered Arizona teen who mysteriously returns from the dead as an all–powerful…
Youngblood (1986): Dir. Peter Markle
Feat. Rob Lowe, Cynthia Gibb, Ed Lauter…; Brat–packer Rob Lowe stars as a pro–hockey hopeful toughing it out during a stay in a Canadian minor hockey town, while engaging in a…
All American High (All American High Revisited) (1985-2014): Dir. Keva Rosenfeld; Excellent 'time–capsule' account of a year at an affluent American High School in Los Angeles, California in 1984. The film's key character…
Better Off Dead (1985): Dir. Savage Steve Holland
Feat. John Cusack, Amanda Wyss, Donald Ogden Stewart…; Skewed version of the 80s teenage comedy which follows the plight of likeable John Cusack after he is dumped by his girlfriend. After many original…
Boys Next Door, The (1985): Dir. Penelope Spheeris
Feat. Charlie Sheen, Maxwell Caulfield; Early feature film by celebrated underground film maker Penelope Spheeris (DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION), with Charlie Sheen Maxwell Caulfield…
Breakfast Club, The (1985): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall…; Five teenagers do detention together in this John Hughes classic.
Catholic Boys (Heaven Help Us) (1985): Dir. Michael Dinner
Feat. Mary Stuart Masterson, John Heard, Donald Sutherland…; Slight, but engaging comedy set around a group of Roman Catholic schoolboys and their misadventures with the opposite sex.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985): Dir. Alan Metter
Feat. Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, Lee Montgomery…; An early lead–role for Sarah Jessica Parker (SEX AND THE CITY) as a teenager frustrated from entering a dance–contest by her conservative…
Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1985): Feat. Leigh McCloskey; Typical 80's teen sex comedy largely inspired by fast food jobs and the Hamburger University program of the McDonald's Corporation.
Legend of Billie Jean, The (1985): Dir. Matthew Robbins
Feat. Helen Slater, Christian Slater, Keith Gordon…; Under–rated 80's youth drama about a young woman and her pals who become media–hyped "legends" after an incident involving a gun and…
Mischief (1985): Dir. Mel Damski
Feat. Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelly Preston, Chris Nash…; Nostalgic teen comedy set in 50's Ohio, where an introverted teen attempts to win the love of the school heart throb, while his extroverted friend…
Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4, The (1985): Dir. Peter Sasdy
Feat. Gian Sammarco, Julie Walters, Lulu …; Engaging TV adaptation of Sue Townsend's much–loved book about the pains of adolescence chronicled by a teenage diarist as he struggles to come…
Teen Wolf / Teen Wolf Too (1985-1986): Dir. Rod Daniel, Christopher Leitch
Feat. Michael J. Fox, Jason Bateman; In TEEN WOLF, Fox plays a high–school student who discovers he has lycanthropic tendencies. The sequel TEEN WOLF TOO continues the story in…
That Was Then, This Is Now (1985): Dir. Christopher Cain
Feat. Emilio Estevez, Craig Sheffer; Emilio Estevez plays juvenile delinquent, in this version of the S E Hinton book.
Tuff Turf (1985): Dir. Fritz Kiersch
Feat. James Spader, Robert Downey Jnr., Claudette Nevins; High school turf wars commence in this posturing 80s melodrama, about a pretty boy (Spader) who takes on a gang of hoodlums in order to win the girl…
Vagabond (1985): Dir. Agnes Varda
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire; Award–winning drama that artfully presents poetic moments from young vagabond Sandrine Bonnaire’s last month alive, listlessly drifting…
Beat Street (1984): Dir. Stan Lathan
Feat. Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis; Key film in the history of hip–hop culture, this urban musical may show its age and derivation (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER), but still comprises an…
Breakdance - The Movie (Breakin’) (1984): Dir. Joel Silberg
Feat. Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones, Michael Chambers; The excellent, highly athletic breakdance performances will be the prime value to hiphop enthusiasts in this FLASHDANCE–clone, which now has a…
Breakdance 2 - Electric Boogaloo (Breakin' 2) (1984): Dir. Sam Firstenberg
Feat. Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones, Michael Chambers; Less–hokey sequel to BREAKDANCE, with a storyline centred on a group of teens and dancers who try to save a community rec–centre from a…
Flamingo Kid, The (1984): Dir. Garry Marshall
Feat. Matt Dillon; Amiable teen vehicle for Matt Dillon set at a 1950s holiday resort.
Initiation, The (1984): Dir. Larry Stewart
Feat. Daphne Zuniga, Vera Miles, Clu Gulager…; A department store–set 80's slasher flick starring Daphne Zuniga (BEVERLY HILLS 90210) as an amnesiac sorority member plagued by a recurring…
John Hughes Box Set (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science) (1984-1986): Three classic 80s teen–flicks from the mastermind of writer/director John Hughes.
Nightmare On Elm Street, A (1984): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp…; The maiden nightmare of the razor–fingered dream–demon Freddie Krueger, who went on to become the pre–eminent horror icon of the…
Racing with the Moon (1984): Dir. Richard Benjamin
Feat. Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, Nicolas Cage…; A well–observed and resonant drama, about the last few days of boyhood for a couple of inductees into the US Marines in 1942. The cast all…
Revenge of the Nerds (1984): Dir. Jeff Kanew
Feat. Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards; Distinguished among 80s comedies by its unique agenda in which two bespectacled, buck–toothed nerds battle it out with the college…
Silent One, The (1984): Dir. Yvonne MacKay
Feat. George Henare, Pat Evison, Teraki Tokorangi; An endearing and visually striking tale of a gifted young mute boy who becomes ostracised by his isolated Pacific community, but finds solace in the…
Sixteen Candles (1984): Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling…; Molly Ringwald became a star in this first of John Hughes' hip and eminently enjoyable movies about adolescence in the 1980s.
À Nos Amours (To Our Loves) (1983): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Cyril Collard; One of dir. Pialat's most satisfying dramas, this concerns a journey of a teenage girl (Bonnaire, in a stunning debut) when her family life turns…
Christine (1983): Dir. John Carpenter
Feat. Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul; A persecuted teen finds unlikely kinship in a girl with a diff – a demonically–charged 1958 Plymouth that indulges in dispatching…
Meantime (1983): Dir. Mike Leigh
Feat. Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Pam Ferris…; Mike Leigh's skewed sense of humour takes on the doledrums of Thatcher's London. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are unrecognisably awkward in a…
Outsiders, The (1983): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio…; Based on the gritty novel by S. E. Hinton (THAT WAS THEN THIS IS NOW), this ‘realistic’ depiction of teenage outsiders in 50s America is…
Risky Business (1983): Dir. Paul Brickman
Feat. Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay; A kind of '80s update of THE GRADUATE, this imaginative comedy propelled a 17–year old Tom Cruise into the limelight. Uncommonly stylish and…
Rumble Fish (1983): Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
Feat. Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper…; Coppola's cult fave is a highly stylised treatment of a teen delinquency drama may not be entirely appropriate, but it sure looks impressive. Equally…
Suburbia (Rebel Street's aka: Wild Side) (1983): Dir. Penelope Spheeris
Feat. Flea; Low key yet definitive dramatic portrait of the American punk scene, staged with non–actors as the "T.R. gang" who set up camp in a scuzzy L.A.…
Sweet Sixteen (1983): Dir. Jim Sotos
Feat. Aleisa Shirley, Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg…; Forgotten slasher from the 80's that instead slashes the boys instead of the girls, when a soon–to–be sixteen–year–old girl…
Valley Girl (1983): Dir. Martha Coolidge
Feat. Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily…; One of the coolest teen flicks of the early 80s exults a first starring role for Nicolas Cage as a Hollywood punk who crashes a suburban party and…
Diner (1982): Dir. Barry Levinson
Feat. Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon…; Endearing, and enduring, tale of college friends growing up in the 1950s Baltimore was a box–office flop but soon found an enthusiastic…
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982): Dir. Amy Heckerling
Feat. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold…; This early–80s teen pic survives a lot better than most, finding surprisingly subtle shades of the adolescent experience amid some frank…
Grease 2 (1982): Dir. Patricia Brich
Feat. Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Pfeiffer; Enjoyably bad reprise of the hit musical of 50s High School Americana, still gets by with a handful of good tunes and Michelle Pffiefer.
Smithereens (1982): Dir. Susan Seidelman
Feat. Richard Hell; Hanging out on the lower rung of the gritty New York music scene in the early 80s, a flaky adolescent girl struggles to make her mark or find…
Square Pegs (TV Series) (1982-1983): Feat. Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Linker, Jami Gertz…; Sassy high school comedy from the early 1980's centred around Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Linker as two awkward teenage girls desperate to be…
Tex (1982): Dir. Tim Hunter
Feat. Matt Dillon, Jim Metzler, Meg Tilly…; Arguably the best adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s teen fictions (THE OUTSIDERS etc.), with Matt Dillon giving an early, heartbreaking performance as a…
Young Ones, The (TV Series) (1982-1984): Feat. Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer…; Off–the–wall, anarchic 80s sitcom about young rebels (liberal Rik, punk Vyvian, hippy Neil and bodgy Mike) co–habitating in a…
Burning, The (1981): Dir. Tony Maylam
Feat. Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer…; A proficient slasher in the wake of FRIDAY THE 13TH in which a former summer camp caretaker plots bloody revenge on the teenagers who accidentally…
Endless Love (1981): Dir. Franco Zeffirelli
Feat. Brooke Shields; Brooke Shields is the saving grace of this fiasco made of Scott Spencer's acclaimed novel about an obsessive teenage romance.
Gregory's Girl (1981): Dir. Bill Forsyth
Feat. John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn; An affectionate and entertaining Scottish comedy about a shy and awkward school footballer's infatuation with a female team–member.
Porky's (1981): Dir. Bob Clark
Feat. Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier; ANIMAL HOUSE retread with juvenile male high–jinx on college campus. Massive hit is testament to the adage that no–one ever went broke…
Puberty Blues (1981): Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. Nell Schofield, Jad Capelja; Affecting teenage odyssey with Nell Schofield and Jad Capelja as surfing–groupies, learning to fit into a sex’n’drugs beach–scene.
Foxes (1980): Dir. Adrian Lyne
Feat. Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, Sally Kellerman…; Four teenage loose cannons speed towards self–destruction in this frank, impressionistic portrait of L.A. teen culture. A young Jodie Foster…
Friday the 13th [Franchise] (1980-1989): Dir. Sean S. Cunningham
Feat. Betsy Palmer, Kevin Bacon; The most successful film to exploit the '80s stalk–and–slash formula, characterised by disposable teenagers being endlessly slaughtered…
My Bodyguard (1980): Dir. Tony Bill
Feat. Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon…; A newcomer to a Chicago high school hires the biggest fellow student to be his 'bodyguard', especially to protect him from a lunch–money…
Out of the Blue (1980): Dir. Dennis Hopper
Feat. Dennis Hopper, Linda Manz, Sharon Farrell…; Dennis Hopper transposes the themes from his EASY RIDER into a punk aesthetic in this downbeat yet compelling dissertation on teenage rebellion and…
Prom Night (1980): Dir. Paul Lynch
Feat. Jamie Lee Curtis, Leslie Nielsen; 'Halloween' stalk'n'slash protege with Jamie Lee Curtis returning as one of a group of teens with a guilty secret menaced by the ubiquitous masked…
Rude Boy (1980): Dir. Hazan, Mingay
Feat. Jimmy Pursey, Johnny Green; Semi–doco in which a teenage punk is forced to choose political allegiances while scamming a roadie job with the Clash. Features nine Clash…
Storm Boy (1980): Dir. Henri Safran
Feat. Greg Rowe, Peter Cummins, David Gulpilil; Minor Australian classic set in the beautiful, windswept wilds of South Australia, where a young boy leads an isolated existence with his father and…
Terror Train (1980): Dir. Roger Spottiswoode
Feat. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson, Hart Bochner…; Fresh from HALLOWEEN, Jamie Lee Curtis reprises a 'scream queen' for this teen slasher pic set aboard a chartered locomotive. A gamut of masquerade…
Times Square (1980): Dir. Allan Moyle
Feat. Robin Johnson, Trini Alvarado, Tim Curry; An NYC youth drama inspired by the "new wave" music and fashions of the time that follows the mildly anarchic wanderings of a pair of runaway…
Up The Academy (1980): Dir. Robert Downey Snr.
Feat. Ron Leibman, Ralph Macchio, Tom Poston…; Mad Magazine jump on the "National Lampoon" bandwagon with this ANIMAL HOUSE cash–in about the outrageous antics of a group of teenage misfits…
Little Romance, A (1979): Dir. George Roy Hill
Feat. Laurence Olivier, Anna Massey, Arthur Hill…; Sweet minor comedy in which aged charmer Olivier persuades two teenage lovers – American boy, French girl – to run off together.…
Meatballs (1979): Dir. Ivan Reitman
Feat. Bill Murray; A laidback Bill Murray injects some meat into the summer camp cliche, here playing a trainee counselor in charge of a group of misfit stereotypes:…
Over the Edge (1979): Dir. Jonathan Kaplan
Feat. Matt Dillon, Harry Northrup; One of the best portraits of delinquency yet committed to the screen, Matt Dillon, in his acting debut, is just one of the aimless youths who erupt…
Passe ton Bac d'abord (Graduate First) (1979): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Sabine Haudepin, Philippe Marlaud, Bernard Tronczak…; Dir. Pialat’s matter–of–fact realism and blasé cast of young actors conveys all the aimlessness and uncertainty of youth in this…
Quadrophenia (1979): Dir. Franc Roddam
Feat. Phil Daniels, Michael Elphick, Ray Winstone…; Brilliant portrait of alienated youth, inspired by The Who's concept album, focuses on a young Mod's personal crises and his gang's violent agenda…
Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979): Dir. Alan Arkush
Feat. P.J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, Clint Howard…; Pop–crazy student and 'Ramones' no. 1 fan, Riff Randell (PJ Soles) fights for her right to party against dragonlady principal Togar (Mary…
Wanderers, The (1979): Dir. Philip Kaufman
Feat. Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, Linda Manz; Bittersweet throw back to life in a Bronx high school in 1963, focused on Italian gang 'The Wanderers', who fumble their way through romance and…
When a Stranger Calls (1979): Dir. Fred Walton
Feat. Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst…; "Have you checked the children?". This line and the opening twenty minutes of this film (later parodied in SCREAM) preyed on babysitters' fears the…
Big Wednesday (1978): Dir. John Milius
Feat. Jan-Michael Vincent, Gary Busey, William Katt; Resonant, underrated youth movie about three red–blooded American boys who catch waves in mid–60s California but face the winds of change…
Grange Hill (TV Series) (1978-2008): Candid British kids series following the exploits of a group of school misfits dealing with the day–to–day struggles of life in a…
Scared Straight! (1978): Dir. Alan Shapiro
Feat. Peter Falk, Danny Glover; A famous, Oscar–winning documentary in which a group of 17 budding teenage crims are shown the harsh realities of prison life, chiefly being…
Tattooed Tears (1978): Dir. Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill; Early Nick Broomfield doco eschews his later interactive style for an unrelenting examination of the life of four youths in a prison for young…
You Are Not Alone (Du er ikke alene) (1978): Dir. Ernst Johansen, Lasse Nielsen
Feat. Anders Agensø, Peter Bjerg; Beautifully evocative Danish coming–of–age story set in an all–boys boarding school, which confronts themes of homosexuality and…
FJ Holden, The (1977): Dir. Michael Thornhill
Feat. Paul Couzens, Carl Stever, Sigrid Thornton; Low–budget youth drama that follows the travails of two smalltime Holden–driving hoons in the West Sydney suburb of Bankstown. Both…
Grease (1977): Dir. Randal Kleiser
Feat. John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing…; Musical sensation set in a 1950s high–school was a box–office phenomenon, now an enduring classic. John Travolta, Olivia…
Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The (TV Series) (1977): Feat. Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson, Pamela Sue Martin; Teen dreamboats Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson teamed up as the dogged Hardy Boys in this popular seventies serialization of the paperback…
Skateboard (1977): Dir. George Gage
Feat. Leif Garrett, Allen Garfield, Kathleen Lloyd; Teen idol Leif Garrett is barely out of huggies to star in this quite entertaining cash–in on the first wave of the skateboard craze in the…
The Devil, Probably (Le diable probablement) (1977): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc…; Distinctive late–period inclusion into the incredible canon of films from director Robert Bresson (DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST), following a…
Bugsy Malone (1976): Dir. Alan Parker
Feat. Scott Baio, Jodie Foster, John Cassini; Alan Parker's directing debut was this startlingly original feature debut reinvents the gangster movie as a musical pastiche cast entirely with…
Carrie (1976): Dir. Brian De Palma
Feat. Sissy Spacek, John Travolta; One of the best screen adaptations of any Stephen King novel, and also one of dir. De Palma's best, this is the frightening story of a persecuted…
Massacre at Central High (1976): Dir. Renee Daalder
Feat. Andrew Stevens, Robert Carradine; An estranged new student uses his homicidal tendencies for the public good, by eliminating trouble–makers in imaginative ways. The superior…
Conrack (1974): Dir. Martin Ritt
Feat. Jon Voight, Paul Winfield, Hume Cronyn; Based on the true experiences of a teacher in a sunlit backwater of South Carolina, Jon Voight gives one of his best performances, trying to rouse…
Lacombe Lucien (1974): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clement; A subtle, probing study of the psychology of collaboration set in WW2 rural France, sees young peasant lad Pierre Blaise drawn into the local…
Lords of Flatbush, The (1974): Dir. Martin Davidson, Stephen Verona
Feat. Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler…; Boasting early appearances for various stars–in–waiting, this is an affectionate view of the rites–of–passage for members of…
Spikes Gang, The (1974): Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Lee Marvin, Gary Grimes, Charles Martin Smith…; Downbeat western with Lee Marvin as a wounded outlaw who finds shelter with two young runaways. Regaling them his colorful stories of life on the…
American Graffiti (1973): Dir. George Lucas
Feat. Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss; Seminal coming–of–age comedy set in '62 spawned a hit TV show (Happy Days), a mega–selling soundtrack and boosted many careers.
Badlands (1973): Dir. Terrence Malick
Feat. Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek; Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are a knock–out as deluded teenage fugitives who chalk up a hefty body count as they flee across country. Based…
Girl Most Likely To, The (1973): Dir. Lee Philips
Feat. Stockard Channing, Edward Asner, Jim Backus; An 'ugly duckling' high–school student is transformed by plastic surgery and decides to wreak homicidal vengeance on former boyfriends and…
That'll Be the Day (1973): Dir. Claude Whatham
Feat. David Essex, Ringo Starr, James Booth…; Popstar David Essex plays a British working–class youth who rejects the staid conformity of 50's Britain and eventually drifts into the…
Railway Children, The (1972): Dir. Lionel Jeffries
Feat. Jenny Agutter; When their father is jailed for espionage, Jenny Agutter and her siblings are relocated to rural Yorkshire. Local adventures slowly turn into an…
Carnal Knowledge (1971): Dir. Mike Nichols
Feat. Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret…; Classic from the early 70s 'zeitgeist', this funny yet sobering film chronicles the sex lives of two disparate men from high–school to…
Clockwork Orange, A (1971): Dir. Stanley Kubrick
Feat. Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates…; From Anthony Burgess' novel, Stanley Kubrick flexes his genius with this electrifying satire about an ultra–violent gang of 'droogs' whose…
Friends (1971): Dir. Lewis Gilbert
Feat. Sean Bury, Anicee Alvina; Sentimental, page–turning romance blossoms an enternal love between two idealistic French teens head over heels. Hit soundtrack by Elton John…
Le Souffle Au Coeur (Murmur of the Heart) (1971): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Benoit Ferreux; A much praised coming–of–age tale concerns a sickly, but promiscuous teenage boy growing up in a stilted bourgeois family in 1950s Dijon…
Tom Brown's School Days (TV Mini-Series) (1971): Dir. Gareth Davies
Feat. Anthony Murphy, Iain Cuthbertson; Vivid BBC adaptation of Thomas Hughes' classic novel, following life at a Victorian Boys public school. Five episodes.
A Swedish Love Story (1970): Dir. Roy Andersson
Feat. Ann-Sofie Kylin, Rolf Sohlman; The debut feature film from director Roy Andersson (YOU, THE LIVING) is an unforgettably beautiful coming–of–age tale inspired by the…
Zabriskie Point (1970): Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni
Feat. Rod Taylor, Paul Fix, G.D. Spradlin…; Antonioni explores the psyche of young radicals who try to find the meaning of life after fleeing from riotous protests. Engaging hippie fare.
Alice's Restaurant (1969): Dir. Arthur Penn
Feat. Arlo Guthrie, Patricia Quinn, James Broderick…; Loosely built around the adventures of hippie troubadour Arlo Guthrie (son of Woody and star of WOODSTOCK), as he wanders rural America asking…
All the Right Noises (1969): Dir. Gerry O'Hara
Feat. Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell, John Standing…; The story of a young married man who has an affair with a teenage girl, this forms part of a peculiarly 1960s British wave of films exploring such…
Bronco Bullfrog (1969): Dir. Barney Platts-Mills
Feat. Del Walker, Anne Gooding, Sam Shepherd; Del and his friends agree to take part in a robbery with a boy fresh from the borstal. When Del falls in love with Irene they decide to run away from…
Kes (1969): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Colin Welland, Brian Glover; Dreary life in Northern mining town takes on a new lease for a young boy when he discovers and nurtures an injured kestrel. A sensitive, moving film.
Me, Natalie (1969): Dir. Fred Coe
Feat. Patty Duke, James Farentino, Salome Jens…; Thoughtful, though occasionally mawkish coming–of–age tale with Patty Duke as a young woman struggling with low self esteem and fighting…
If.... (1968): Dir. Lindsay Anderson
Feat. Malcolm McDowell, Richard Warwick, Mona Washbourne…; An angry yet sublimely poetic counter–cultural work in which events both real and imagined culminate in a violent revolt at a repressive public…
L'Enfance-Nue (Naked Childhood) (1968): Dir. Maurice Pialat
Feat. Michel Terrazon; Astonishingly sober coming–of–age tale represents Pialat at his most profoundly unsentimental. The director brilliantly blends naturalism…
Actuality Dramas of Allan King, The (Warrendale; A Married Couple; Come on Children; Dying at Grace; Memory For Max, Claire, Ida and Company) (1967-2005): Dir. Allan King; A collection of five cinema–verité style documentaries from the extraordinary Canadian auteur Allan King, all of which are emotionally…
Just for the Hell of it / Blast Off Girls (1967-1968): Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis
Feat. Ray Sager; A Drive–In Double Bill of delinquency dramas from gore–king Herschell Gordon Lewis, who here keeps a lid on the red paint. JUST FOR…
Mouchette (1967): Dir. Robert Bresson
Feat. Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal; An impoverished young girl in rural France bears the brunt of hard times in this perfectly formed study, taken from the novel by George Bernanos.…
Riot On Sunset Strip (1967): Dir. Arthur Dreifuss
Feat. Aldo Ray, Mimsy Farmer; Restless hippy kids cause headaches for parents and police as violence and recreational drugs take root in affluent Hollywood. The fashions and…
Monkees, The (TV Series) (1966): Dir. Bob Rafelson
Feat. Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork…; Relive classic "Monkeemania" with the irrepressibly cheerful and zany 60's pop group's TV series, initially inspired by The Beatles' "Hard Day's…
To Sir with Love (1966): Dir. James Clavell
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Lulu; Sidney Poitier instructs a class of cheeky, wayward teenagers in this feel–good classic of British cinema.
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965): Dir. William Asher
Feat. Paul Lynde, Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello…; Most successful and best known of the ‘Beach Party’ movies, though it shows signs of being fifth in a series by straying quite a way from the…
Gidget (TV Series) (1965-1966): Feat. Sally Field, Don Porter, Betty Conner; Truly likeable television spinoff series of the 1959 movie, about a spunky young surfer girl (Field) who comes of age around her friends, solo Dad…
Rapture (1965): Dir. John Guillermin
Feat. Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Gozzi, Dean Stockwell…; Drama based on the 1954 novel "Rapture in My Rags" about a lonely teenage girl living with her widower father, who develops an attraction to an…
Village of the Giants (1965): Dir. Bert I. Gordon
Feat. Ron Howard, Beau Bridges; From the brainchild of Bert I. Gordon, an atomic monster and ‘giant’ movie specialist who did a lot of his own special effects, comes this gaudy…
Bikini Beach (1964): Dir. William Asher
Feat. Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Keenan Wynn…; The third of the "Beach Party" movies starring peaches 'n' cream teens Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, this is arguably an improvement on both…
Leather Boys, The (1964): Dir. Sidney J. Furie
Feat. Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton; Gritty study of an impulsive young woman's incompatible marriage to motorcycle–loving mechanic, and his subsequent 'close' relationship with a…
My Way Home (Igy jottem) (1964): Dir. Miklos Jancso
Feat. Andras Kozak, Sergei Nikonyenko, Janos Gorbe; In the final days of World War II, a young Hungarian is making his way home, through countryside full of the debris of war, when he is captured and…
Ride the Wild Surf (1964): Dir. Don Taylor
Feat. Fabian, Tab Hunter, Barbara Eden…; Clean–cut teenage beach party movie with Fabian, Tab Hunter and Barbara Eden looking splendid in their swimming trunks.
What's Happening: The Beatles in the USA (The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit) (1964): Dir. David Maysles, Albert Maysles
Feat. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr…; First aired for television, this all access fly–on–the–wall account of the Beatles first trip through the USA in February 1964 is a…
Bye Bye Birdie (1963): Dir. George Sidney
Feat. Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret, Janet Leigh…; Fluffy yet fabulous film version of the hit Broadway musical with rock 'n' roller Dick Van Dyke traveling to small town Ohio to make his final…
Live it Up! (Sing and Swing) (1963): Dir. Lance Comfort
Feat. David Hemmings; Low–budget, but historically fascinating musical wraps some great mid–60s pop music around its slender plot. Hemmings plays a…
That Kind of Girl (1963): Dir. Gerry O'Hara
Feat. Margaret Rose Keil, David Weston, Linda Marlowe; Another gem rescued from obscurity by the BFI's Flipside label, this one deals with the hush–hush topic of venereal disease against a backdrop…
Yellow Teddybears, The (Gutter Girls) (1963): Dir. Robert Hartford-Davies
Feat. Annette Whiteley; Packaged as a sexploitation movie, this is actually an earnest message movie about illicit teenage sex, set in a girl's school where those that have…
Young Racers, The (1963): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. Mark Damon, Patrick Magee; Teensploitation melodrama from the king of the drive–in cheapie about motor–racing rivalry. Some great racing footage and bratty…
Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961): Dir. Paul Wendkos
Feat. Deborah Walley, James Darren; Deborah Walley as teenage Gidget #3 says ‘aloha’ in this superfluous sequel.
Splendour in the Grass (1961): Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle…; Smitten teens work up considerable sexual frenzy when their respective families won't let them be together. Appropriately, it's the lurid scenes…
West Side Story (1961): Dir. Robert Wise
Feat. Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn…; Oscar–sweeping, hugely influential film version of Bernstein and Sondheim's landmark Broadway musical, updating Romeo and Juliet to dockland…
Young Ones, The / Summer Holiday (1961-1962): Dir. Sidney J. Furie, Peter Yates
Feat. Cliff Richard, Robert Morley, The Shadows; A pairing of delightfully dated musical vehicles for Brit pop sensation of the day, Cliff Richard. THE YOUNG ONES has Cliff organising a fundraising…
Beat Girl (1960): Dir. Edmond T. Greville
Feat. Gillian Hills, Adam Faith, Christopher Lee…; Providing a rare peek into the British 'beat scene', this groovy juvenile delinquency drama proves there was teenage wildlife before the Beatles, and…
High School Caesar (1960): Dir. O'Dale Ireland
Feat. John Ashley; John Ashley plays a budding crime–lord in this racy wee B–movie, with his own high school proving a rich source of revenue, via exam…
Platinum High School (1960): Dir. Charles Haas
Feat. Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Dan Duryea…; Mickey Rooney overheats in investigating his son's death at a military academy. Casting quirks includes singer Conway Twitty.
Sex Kittens Go to College (1960): Dir. Albert Zugsmith
Feat. Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld; Despite having thirteen diplomas, Mamie Van Doren (the B–Movie's Marilyn Monroe) has trouble being taken seriously as a college professor!…
Tall Story (1960): Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Jane Fonda, Anthony Perkins; A young Jane Fonda makes her screen debut in this candy–coated comedy as a bubbly co–ed with romantic yearnings for basketballer Anthony…
400 Blows, The (1959): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy…; Truffaut's first film rocketed him to fame as some kind of New Wave radical, but at a second glance this story of a teenage delinquent thrown in and…
Gidget (1959): Dir. Paul Wendkos
Feat. Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson; Cute–as–a–button Sandra Dee goes all out to prove she can hang with surf bums James Darren and Cliff Robertson, in the first and…
Teenage Zombies (1959): Dir. Jerry Warren; A group of teenagers fall prey to a mad female scientist whose island they happen upon. Here, other prisoners and a variety of creatures are being…
Teenagers from Outer Space (the Gargon Terror) (1959): Dir. Tom Graeff
Feat. David Love, Dawn Bender, Bryan Grant; Perhaps the ropiest of the ‘TEENAGE…’ 50s drive–ins, with two aliens visiting Earth as teens, one ‘good’, the…
Cool and the Crazy, The (1958): Dir. William Witney
Feat. Scott Marlowe, Dick Bakalyan, Gigi Perreau; Dick Bakalyan is impressively cool and crazy in this over–the–top 50s B–movie that cautions teenagers about getting mixed up with…
High School Confidential (1958): Dir. Jack Arnold
Feat. Russ Tamblyn, Mamie Van Doren, Jerry Lee Lewis; When not gathering dirt on local marijuana dealers, 'student' narc Russ Tamblyn is clinching it with Mamie Van Doren. This hard–biting 'JD'…
Reform School Girl (1958): Dir. Edward Bernds
Feat. Gloria Castillo, Sally Kellerman; A “shocking true story”, this cheapie concerns the rough–ride of 17 year–old Gloria Castillo, who gets mixed up with a…
Speedway (1958): Dir. Norman Taurog
Feat. Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra; Elvis Presley musical set in stock–car racing scene. With Nancy Sinatra in the passenger seat.
Teenage Caveman (1958): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. Robert Vaughn, Sarah Marshall, Leslie Bradley; Prehistoric drive–in fare boosted by Roger Corman's knack for never letting action drag, and a baby–faced Robert Vaughn (Man from Uncle)…
Delinquents, The (1957): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Dick Bakalyan; Future luminary Robert Altman's debut feature, an "expose" of juvenile delinquency in the rock'n'roll era. Filmed in Kansas City in a…
Dragstrip Girl (1957): Dir. Edward L. Cahn
Feat. Fay Spain, Steve Terrell, John Ashley…; For the thrill of it, young blonde thing Fay Spain sets up a race between her two boyfriends, one being a good–guy garage mechanic, and the…
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957): Dir. Herbert Strock
Feat. Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates, Robert Burton; Campy drive–in classic about a mad scientist who pulls a teen from a car wreck and 'repairs' him. Best seen as a double feature with 'Teenage…
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957): Dir. Gene Fowler Jnr.
Feat. Michael Landon; A cool Michael Landon scored a big hit in his film debut – a hilarious mishmash of horror and juvenile delinquency dramas.
Rock All Night (1957): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. Dick Miller, Abby Dalton; Two fugitive killers take refuge in a rock'n'roll hotspot and terrorize the customers. Less compelling than dir. Corman's usual B–grade…
Sorority Girl (The Bad One) (1957): Dir. Roger Corman
Feat. Susan Cabot, Fay Baker, Dick Miller; Nastily excellent early Corman has Susan Cabot play an evil–minded college student who blackmails, teases and dominates various social…
Crazed Fruit (1956): Dir. Ko Nakahira
Feat. Yujiro Ishihara, Masahiko Tsugawa, Mie Kitahara; Two hedonistic brothers chase the skirt of a voracious young temptress in this scorching, jazz–infused statement on reckless youth. A seminal…
Rock Rock Rock (1956): Dir. Will Price
Feat. Tuesday Weld; Tuesday Weld (at 13) schemes to get herself a strapless gown for the prom, surrounded by an impressive array of rock'n'rollers both black and white,…
Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1956): Dir. Edward L. Cahn
Feat. Michael Connors, Lisa Gaye, Douglas Dumbrille…; Shaky but endearing pop relic in which a group of concerned adults try to ban rock 'n' roll music in their town believing that it promotes juvenile…
Violent Years, The (1956): Dir. William J Morgan
Feat. Mamie Van Doren; Scripted by Ed Wood Jnr (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) this tawdry 50s juvenile–delinquent pic features Mamie Van Doren leading a gang of…
Blackboard Jungle, The (1955): Dir. Richard Brooks
Feat. Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow; Famously controversial on release and first of the 'Rock–n–roll' films, this lifted the lid on the heated youth tensions in 50s America.…
Rebel Without a Cause (1955): Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo; James Dean's intense portayal of an alienated youth from a wealthy family opened the eyes of a generation and catapulted him to stardom. One of the…
Wild One, The (1954): Dir. Laslo Benedek
Feat. Marlon Brando; Marlon Brando leathers up for a bit of rebellion Hollywood–style, leading a gang of bikies to terrorise a small town. Controversial for their…
Final Test, The (1953): Dir. Anthony Asquith
Feat. Jack Warner, Robert Morley, George Relph…; Gentle comedy of values has a famed cricketer making his way to the middle for one last innings. Meanwhile is son is torn between seeing dad bat one…
Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned, aka The Forgotten Ones) (1950): Dir. Luis Bunuel; Ground–breaking masterwork from dir. Luis Bunuel's Meixcan period, set among slum children in Mexico City, whose harsh circumstances and…
Boys in Brown, The (1949): Dir. Montgomery Tully
Feat. Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde…; Soft youth rebellion drama with Jack Warner as warden of a borstal struggling to keep his tempestuous young charges in line. Mostly of note for its…
Les Enfants Terribles (The Strange Ones) (1948): Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
Feat. Edouard Dermithe, Nicole Stephane; A poetic drama–fantasy from the pen of Jean Cocteau (who also directed several scenes), that centres round the narcissistic,…
Brighton Rock (1947): Dir. John Boulting
Feat. Richard Attenborough, Hermione Baddeley, William Hartnell; One of the coolest British crime flicks sees Richard Attenborough give an attention–grabbing portrayal of a delinquent gang leader who wants…
Tom Brown's School Days (1940): Dir. Robert Stevenson
Feat. Freddie Bartholomew, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Jimmy Lydon; Thomas Hughes' classic novel of life at the Victorian Boys public school of Rugby is given a generous, populist treatment. New boy Lydon finds…
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938): Dir. George B. Seitz
Feat. Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Judy Garland…; Mickey Rooney stars in this early teenage rom–com as a ruddy–faced youth who becomes entangled with three different girls (Garland,…
Assassin of Youth (1937): Dir. Elmer Clifton
Feat. Luana Walters, Arthur Gardner; Marijuana scare–movie from the 30s is an above–par exercise in hilarious establishment uptightness, following the sorry fate of several…
Marihuana (1936): Dir. Dwain Esper
Feat. Harlene Wood; Perhaps second only to REEFER MADNESS in demonstrating the perils of dope with laughably straight–faced paranoia, this sees some unsuspecting…

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