Revised list of films for your teen to watch
(with or without you!)
I have compiled a list of films recommended to me by clients and parents of clients over the years, and I have now added additional recommendations left in the comments in my last film recommendations post!
The 400 Blows
The Night of the Hunter
Days of Heaven
Passion of Joan of Arc (1926)
Stand By Me
The Karate Kid
The Elephant Man
Carrie
Malcolm X
Amadeus
The Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump
Schindler’s List
The King’s Speech
Mean Girls
The Fat Boy Chronicles
Billy Elliot
Bully
Killing Us Softly
My Left Foot
Life is Beautiful
Empire of the Sun
Little Miss Sunshine
Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History
The Breakfast Club
Inside Out
Remember the Titans
The Pursuit of Happyness
Once Were Warriors
Coraline--she learns the dangers of going to her "perfect" replacement family and fights to get back to her real parents.
Enola Holmes
The Gods Must Be Crazy - it's a hilarious comedy.
My Life as a Dog
Ponette
Forbidden Games
The Red Shoes (a cautionary tale of female obsession and fixation!)
Once were Warriors (adult content and difficult to watch so only recommended for older teens)
Whale Rider
Czerny Piotr (in Czech- comedy)
A blonde in love (in Czech- comedy)
Audition (in Czech- comedy)
Billy Liar (a British comedy about a the difference between fantasy and free spirits)
Kes (British, definitely not a comedy about bullying )
Georgy Girl (British, about trying to grow up)
The Last Picture Show
Graduate first (very realistic family arguments, and very funny)
Vagabond
Afterlife (by the Japanese director Kore Eda)
The Green Ray by Eric Rohmer (in French)
The River by Renoir (a film about teenage sexual awakening set in India)
The Boy who harnessed the wind
Catch 22
The Iron Giant
My Neighbor Totoro
Miracle on 34th Street (the original version, starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn)
Lilly topples the world (Coming of age documentary. She struggles with being quirky but after her first year in college, embraces it)
Shoah
Lord of the Flies
Groundhog’s Day
The Internship
European Vacation
Overboard
To Be or Not To Be
A Christmas Story
It’s a Wonderful Life
Rainman
Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep - funny and poignant)
Last of the Mohicans
12 Angry Men
Jean de Florette
Manon De Source
Mondo
Being There
4 films based on SE Hinton books:
The Outsiders (she wrote this when she was 16)
Rumblefish
Tex
That Was Then This is Now
(Rumblefish & The Outsiders were both directed by FF Coppola)
Another good one is - In My Skin. Coming-of-age story of 16-year-old Bethan, who deals with the comical but painfully real anxieties and insecurities of teenage life, along with the stark reality of a home life that is far removed from what she projects to her friends.
Citizen Ruth. It’s a bit mature in some ways but hilarious and a good illustration of activist extremes. I’m still waiting for the message to hit home, or at least surface.