Screengem: Duncan’s bike in The Way Way Back (Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, 2013)
The year was 1982. I’d recently moved to Los Angeles from London and had settled into a seemingly idyllic sun-kissed…
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Coming of Age, or, the Inversion of Expectations in The Last Picture Show
Life is not a stroll across a field – Boris Pasternak Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971) reveals, in…
Lady Bird: When the Bird Has Flown the Nest
Fierce, funny, and willfully independent, Lady Bird (2017) diverges from traditional coming-of-age narratives to feature a mother and daughter relationship major…
The inner chaos of adolescent life: Sion Sono’s Love Exposure
In Sion Sono’s Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, 2008), 17-year-old Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) struggles with his sexual awakening. Sono turns the…
The Existential Rhythm of Fortitude in Moonlight
Artistic cinematography and a devoted biographical approach characterize Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016). With plot-driven tri-part divisions, Moonlight poetically chronicles the growth…
The Myth of Conformity: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), a coming-of-age film with a focus on queer identity, offers a new perspective of…
Four Frames: discover Murmur of the Heart, Louis Malle’s coming-of-age classic
Murmur of the Heart consists of two halves: the first a celebration of youth, and the second an awakening to adulthood’s messy realities.
