<p>Stories about young people meeting (or failing) emotional challenges. Which ones are memorable for you and why? For me these come to mind…</p>
<p>A Taste of Honey
The Learning Tree
Summer of '42
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Graduate
Red Sky at Morning
Boyz in the Hood
The Sterile Cookoo
Whale Rider</p>
<p>Breaking Away</p>
<p>Stand By Me</p>
<p>Amost Famous</p>
<p>East of Eden</p>
<p>Brokeback Mountain.</p>
<p>LakeWashington,</p>
<p>I promise I’ll mention one…but first…what is it about Whale Rider that people love? I just couldn’t get into it…</p>
<p>Anyway, American Graffiti for my money.</p>
<p>The Breakfast Club
Pretty in Pink
Clueless
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Grease
Mean Girls</p>
<p>This coming from a teenager…</p>
<p>.-_-.</p>
<p>Gotta love those 80’s and early 90’s movies:</p>
<p>Footloose
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Dead Poets Society
Dirty Dancing
Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Pretty in Pink
Some Kind of Wonderful
Karate Kid
Dazed & Confused
Reality Bites
Mystic Pizza
Vision Quest
Say Anything
Lucas
St. Elmo’s Fire
The Legend of Billie Jean</p>
<p>I love all the John Hughes movies on the lists. I’m partial to Breakfast Club. Especially the essay Anthony Michael Hall reads at the end, and Judd Nelson’s “touching” Christmas story.</p>
<p>All time favorite scene? John Cusack’s dinner table rant about his future plans in Say Anything. Gee, that was funny stuff.</p>
<p>The Outsiders</p>
<p>A Separate Peace</p>
<p>I would add A Little Princess to this list, too. It was one of the more beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. Oh, and Big Fish, too.</p>
<p>Pulp Fiction</p>
<p>The Graduate
Rebel without a Cause
American Graffiti
Breaking Away
Stand by Me</p>
<p>October Sky</p>
<p>All great movies (even Pulp Fiction, though I don’t really think that’s a “coming-of-age” movie).</p>
<p>I’ll add:</p>
<p>Metropolitan
L’auberge Espagnole
and, especially,
Before Sunrise</p>
<p>I also remember thinking crazy/beautiful was a pretty good movie.</p>
<p>On the John Hughes front, you can’t forget the marvelous refusing-to-come-of-age movie, Ferris Buehler’s Day Off.</p>
<p>What about :
Good Will Hunting
Truffaut: 400 Blows</p>
<p>and maybe The Lion King??</p>
<p>Three in the Attic.</p>
<p>Summer of '42 is the most memorable for me.</p>
<p>Not because of the content of the movie. Because it was the first (and only!) R movie I successfully sneaked into while under 17. ;)</p>
<p>In terms of the actual movie, American Graffiti.</p>
<p>Also, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which (if you subtract Johnny Depp and a hundred million dollars worth of special effects) is actually a coming-of-age story about the Orlando Bloom character.</p>