Coming of age and romance movie list
by coffeeplus | created - 03 Aug 2011 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicThis list contains mostly romance movies that have young, adolescent characters and the plots deal with their love life, their problems and difficulties, passing them by etc. The order of the movies isn't relevant for their quality! (this isn't a top). Latest additions at the end of the list.
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1. Submarine (2010)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.
Director: Richard Ayoade | Stars: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor
Votes: 96,451 | Gross: $0.47M
2. This Is England '86 (2010)
TV-MA | 47 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Shaun has just finished his final exams and he realizes he is no longer a kid. It's mid 80's England, and the gang are back, looking for a laugh, a job and something that resembles a future.
Stars: Andrew Ellis, Andrew Shim, Chanel Cresswell, Danielle Watson
Votes: 14,481
3. Charlie Bartlett (2007)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rich kid becomes the self-appointed psychiatrist to the student body of his new high school.
Director: Jon Poll | Stars: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings
Votes: 66,674 | Gross: $3.95M
4. It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A clinically-depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck | Stars: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Dana DeVestern
Votes: 148,048 | Gross: $6.35M
5. The Go-Getter (2007)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama
When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.
Director: Martin Hynes | Stars: Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, Judy Greer
Votes: 5,240
6. Weeds (2005–2012)
TV-MA | 28 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
When a suburban mother turns to dealing marijuana in order to maintain her privileged lifestyle after her husband dies, she finds out just how addicted her entire neighborhood already is.
Stars: Mary-Louise Parker, Hunter Parrish, Alexander Gould, Kevin Nealon
Votes: 117,279
7. Winter Passing (2005)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
An editor offers actress/bartender Reese $100,000 for her late mom's letters from her novelist dad. She heads home from NYC to get them and finds her dad living in the garage while two strangers live in the house.
Director: Adam Rapp | Stars: Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Darrell Larson
Votes: 8,899 | Gross: $0.10M
8. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller
Votes: 312,925 | Gross: $52.36M
9. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Sport
A young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Avis Bunnage, Alec McCowen
Votes: 9,369
10. Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A worried husband finds a lover for his depressed wife, but she falls in love with a bullied thirteen-year-old math prodigy and wants to have the boy's baby.
Director: Bertrand Blier | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Carole Laure, Patrick Dewaere, Michel Serrault
Votes: 4,276
11. An Education (2009)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.
Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams
Votes: 138,114 | Gross: $12.57M
12. Never Let Me Go (2010)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
The lives of three friends, from their early school days into young adulthood, when the reality of the world they live in comes knocking.
Director: Mark Romanek | Stars: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Izzy Meikle-Small
Votes: 153,108 | Gross: $2.43M
13. The Reader (2008)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain
Votes: 259,569 | Gross: $34.19M
14. The Science of Sleep (2006)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is love-struck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Gael García Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Miou-Miou, Alain Chabat
Votes: 70,867 | Gross: $4.66M
15. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,161 | Gross: $104.95M
16. Igby Goes Down (2002)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
A young man's peculiar upbringing renders him unable to competently cope with the struggle of growing up.
Director: Burr Steers | Stars: Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Claire Danes
Votes: 35,181 | Gross: $4.68M
17. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After being dumped by the girl he believes to be his soulmate, hopeless romantic Tom Hansen reflects on their relationship to try and figure out where things went wrong and how he can win her back.
Director: Marc Webb | Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 556,983 | Gross: $32.39M
18. Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
A New Yorker's life is thrown into a tailspin when his younger cousin surprise-visits him, starting a strange, unpredictable adventure.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, Cecillia Stark
Votes: 40,620 | Gross: $2.44M
19. House of D (2004)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
By working through problems stemming from his past, Tom Warshaw, an American artist living in Paris, begins to discover who he really is, and returns to his home to reconcile with his family and friends.
Director: David Duchovny | Stars: David Duchovny, Téa Leoni, Robin Williams, Anton Yelchin
Votes: 9,801 | Gross: $0.37M
20. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama
A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 253,838 | Gross: $9.17M
21. A Bronx Tale (1993)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama
An intense drama about a boy torn between his tough, hard-working father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra
Votes: 160,819 | Gross: $17.27M
22. Benny & Joon (1993)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | Stars: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Julianne Moore
Votes: 62,020 | Gross: $23.20M
23. Loser (2000)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
A college student, branded a loser by his roommates and booted from the dorm, falls in love with a coed who has eyes for their condescending professor.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Zak Orth, Thomas Sadoski
Votes: 30,339 | Gross: $15.62M
24. This Is England (2006)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim
Votes: 128,655 | Gross: $0.33M
25. Nowhere Boy (2009)
R | 98 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of John Lennon's first years, focused mainly in his adolescence and his relationship with his stern aunt Mimi, who raised him, and his absentee mother Julia, who re-entered his life at a crucial moment in his young life.
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson | Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff, David Threlfall
Votes: 38,817 | Gross: $1.45M
26. Control (2007)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to die by suicide at the age of 23.
Director: Anton Corbijn | Stars: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson, Alexandra Maria Lara
Votes: 68,510 | Gross: $0.87M
27. Youth in Revolt (2009)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, Nick Twisp sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she'll be the one to take away his virginity.
Director: Miguel Arteta | Stars: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis
Votes: 76,029 | Gross: $15.28M
28. Fish Tank (2009)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
Votes: 65,009 | Gross: $0.37M
29. The Boat That Rocked (2009)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Michael Hadley
Votes: 116,022 | Gross: $7.99M
30. Pieces of April (2003)
PG-13 | 80 min | Comedy, Drama
A wayward daughter invites her dying mother and the rest of her estranged family to her apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.
Director: Peter Hedges | Stars: Katie Holmes, Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke
Votes: 22,108 | Gross: $2.53M
31. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
PG | 96 min | Comedy
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Director: Jared Hess | Stars: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell
Votes: 237,521 | Gross: $44.54M
32. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
R | 102 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A teenager finds his dreams of becoming a basketball star threatened after he free falls into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Director: Scott Kalvert | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol, James Madio
Votes: 120,920 | Gross: $2.42M
33. Somers Town (2008)
Not Rated | 71 min | Comedy, Drama
A black-and-white study of a social environment in London, concentrating on a pair of unlikely new friends and the girl they both fancy.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Piotr Jagiello, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson, Thomas Turgoose
Votes: 6,717 | Gross: $0.05M
34. Thumbsucker (2005)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
Justin throws himself and everyone around him into chaos when he attempts to break free from his addiction to his thumb.
Director: Mike Mills | Stars: Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Keanu Reeves
Votes: 21,984 | Gross: $1.33M
35. Almost Famous (2000)
R | 122 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand
Votes: 293,085 | Gross: $32.53M
36. Rushmore (1998)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A teenager at Rushmore Academy falls for a much older teacher and befriends a middle-aged industrialist. Later, he finds out that his love interest and his friend are having an affair, which prompts him to begin a vendetta.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel
Votes: 197,814 | Gross: $17.11M
37. That '70s Show (1998–2006)
TV-14 | 22 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedy revolving around a group of teenage friends, their mishaps, and their coming of age, set in 1970s Wisconsin.
Stars: Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson
Votes: 189,172
38. Cherry (I) (2010)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Drama
An Ivy League freshman gets an unexpected education when he falls for an older woman and her 14 year-old daughter develops a crush on him.
Director: Jeffrey Fine | Stars: Kyle Gallner, Laura Allen, Britt Robertson, Matt Walsh
Votes: 5,201 | Gross: $0.01M
39. Pauline at the Beach (1983)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marion is about to divorce from her husband and takes her 15-year-old niece Pauline on a vacation to Granville. She meets an old love...
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory, Féodor Atkine
Votes: 10,511
40. If.... (1968)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan
Votes: 25,171
41. It (I) (2017)
R | 135 min | Fantasy, Horror
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Director: Andy Muschietti | Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis
Votes: 605,263 | Gross: $327.48M
42. Stranger Things (2016–2025)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour
Votes: 1,333,164
43. Thoroughbreds (2017)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two upper-class teenage girls in suburban Connecticut rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart. Together, they hatch a plan to solve both of their problems-no matter what the cost.
Director: Cory Finley | Stars: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, Paul Sparks
Votes: 46,371 | Gross: $2.83M
44. Super 8 (2011)
PG-13 | 112 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash and investigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town.
Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Elle Fanning, AJ Michalka, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney
Votes: 367,320 | Gross: $127.00M
45. Whisper of the Heart (1995)
G | 111 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A love story between a girl who loves reading books, and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.
Director: Yoshifumi Kondô | Stars: Yoko Honna, Issei Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi
Votes: 72,473
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