Good or Bad, ‘Happiest Season’ is the Christmas Movie I Needed Growing Up (And Now)
By Nicole Watlington | “I’m confident two women can have a happy ending both in fiction and in real life especially in scenarios that include: Christmas lights, hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, and coquito.”… Continue reading →
‘Eighth Grade’ and Puberty with a Divorced Single Dad
By Francesca Hughes | “Many teen films either depict fathers as absent, unfaithful, or grieving widowers struggling to parent. This trope felt alien to me as a girl raised by a divorced single dad.”… Continue reading →
‘Selena’ and the Nostalgia of Language
By Orlando Mendiola | “My first experience with grief was when I was around six years old and my parents had to tell me that Selena, the Tejano singer, was dead.”… Continue reading →
Why ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ Is Still A UK Teen Cult Classic
By Emily Shepherd | “Cringy parents, embarrassing crush encounters and crazy best friends – the perfect recipe for an iconic romcom. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) is the Bridget Jones (2001) of teen romcoms.”… Continue reading →
‘Kajillionaire’ Is A Searing, but Hopeful, Portrait of Parental Neglect
By Kathy Li | “‘Kajillionaire’ makes the case that the scars of parental neglect, invisible as they may be, are no less formative, or less deeply felt, than any other kind of heartbreak.”… Continue reading →
How ‘When Marnie Was There’ Captures Adolescent Depression
By Megan Robinson | “Another person cannot cure depression, plain and simple. But in Marnie, Anna finds a listening ear, someone willing to ease her out of her comfort zone, and just talk with her.”… Continue reading →
Satanic Cannibal Witches: How The ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ creates its own brand of Satanism
By Elliott Ryan | “Witches in media are experiencing a renaissance. They kill, resurrect, eat flesh. And most importantly, they determine their own narratives.”… Continue reading →
“The Calls Are Coming From The House!”: A ‘Black Christmas Retrospective’
By Jamie Tram | “Black Christmas (1974) carved out its own niche by grounding the subgenre in the lives of young women beset by emerging adulthood.”… Continue reading →
The School of ‘Rocky Horror’
By Alexander Gonzalez | “The Halloween episode in season two of the Netflix teen drama ‘Elite’ depicts adolescent angst in the spirit of Rocky Horror.”… Continue reading →
Plug It Up: Menstruation As A Teen Horror Movie Monster
By Eliza Janssen | “Menstrual Horror in film seems to take adolescence and coming of age more seriously than the genre’s tendency to portray teens as disposable.”… Continue reading →
Revisiting Tim Burton’s ‘Big Fish’ as an Adult
By Olly Smith | “I was eight years old when I saw Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003) for the first time. Going into it, I yearned for the same exciting fairy tale adventures that I already knew his work to be.”… Continue reading →
“Where You Lead, I Will Follow”: Gilmore Girls and the Cyclical Project of Growing Up
By Bailey Herdé | “It is Gilmore Girls’ fanciful, gilded vision of the reality that makes it so mesmerizing, rather than any contrived attempt at realism.”… Continue reading →
We Are Who We Are and Unconditional Acceptance
By McKinzie Smith | “Do we always have to create lives for ourselves based on what others expect? Wouldn’t it be more freeing to figure it out on our own terms, with the people who grant us the grace to do so?”… Continue reading →
Sing Street: Much More than a Nostalgia Trip
By Jasmine Li | “This film is like a Cure song: a melancholic tune you can’t help but dance to. Growing up is a happy-sad experience, and ‘Sing Street’ gets it.”… Continue reading →
One Day At A Time and Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love Get Quinces Right
By Odalis Garcia Gorra | “As seen through these two shows, for both Elena and Ashley, a quinces means welcoming an era they were preparing all their life for.”… Continue reading →
Coming of Age Quietly: Eliza Hittman’s Introverted Teens
By Hannah Benson | “[Eliza Hittman’s films are] hyperrealistic portraits of working class adolescence where coming of age is less like a discovery of the self and more an entryway into the systemic and cultural violence that plagues American life.” … Continue reading →
Disney’s Descendants and the Power of Unlearning
By Alex Dewing | “As I’ve returned for rewatches over the years, the fundamental theme of unlearning explored in the film became more prominent and resonated with me.”… Continue reading →
Sorry Folks, but Twilight is Actually Good
By Bailey Herdé | “Twilight’s blue-filtered emotional intensity does not indicate a failure of artistry or filmmaking; instead, it shows an acute understanding of what made the series such a resounding success in the first place.”… Continue reading →
Growing Up with “Scream”: A Closer Look at High School Musical 3’s Most Dramatic Song
By Katherine Clowater | “‘Scream’ is loud, dramatic, and even downright Shakespearean in its portrayal of doubt, anxiety, and the growing responsibilities of adulthood — but that’s how it feels to be a teenager.”… Continue reading →
Me and Jo March: Locating Queerness at Orchard House
By Anna Burnham | “When I began asserting to others that Jo March was deeply, obviously queer, I was trying to tell the people around me — I was trying to tell myself — that I was, too.”… Continue reading →
Analog Love in a Digital World: Re-watching ‘Before Sunrise’ 25 Years On
By Sam Nicholls | “‘Before Sunrise’ isn’t so much a celebration of the ‘analog’ generation, but of the same existence every generation faces at some point: being young, being your own person, and being in love.”… Continue reading →
‘Never Been Kissed,’ and Why We Still Watch High School Movies In Adulthood
By Claire White | “There is comfort in all the familiar beats and characters in a high school film, a predictability we can depend on and take in easily when adulthood is so confusing and unknowable.”… Continue reading →
The Roads to Maturity and Self-Discovery in ‘Whisper of the Heart’
By Miguel Galang | “There is something euphoric to finally knowing yourself a little better, especially when you’re young and growing up can feel like a race.”… Continue reading →
Exploring the Missing Legacy of ‘All I Wanna Do’ and other All-Girls School Movies
By Remy Solomon | “Where previous male filmmakers saw all-girls school as hotbeds for unhemmed sexuality and conniving feminine wiles, [All I Wanna Do] sees them as the key to the revolution.”… Continue reading →
Booksmart and the Importance of Casual Queer Representation
By Maggie Hill | “[Amy] is a reflection of a fully rounded, queer person with goals, ideas, and actions determined outside of her sexuality. [She] provides an idea for young LGBTQ+ people of who they can be and how this piece of themselves can fit into their puzzle.”… Continue reading →
Music, Freedom, and the Anti-Capitalism of ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’
By Isabel Crabtree | “In a world where it suddenly became clear that the rich were stealing from the livelihoods of everyday people and happiness from our parents, teenagers decided to steal a little something back.”… Continue reading →
The Class Character of Teen Rom-Coms
By Max Tassell | “[Not] to say that the bourgeois nature of [teen rom-coms] destroys their quality or renders them insulting, but without characters who have these “real life” experiences, the films risk alienating their audience.”… Continue reading →
Spider-Man: The Ultimate Teenage Superhero
By Alejandro Martinez | “I have probably seen Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) half a million times. The more I watch the movie, the greater my appreciation for it. Not only as a superhero film, but also as a true teenage coming-of-age film.”… Continue reading →
The Magic of Pre-Teen Realism in ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’
By Robyn Matuto | “[The Baby-Sitters Club reflects] experiences as they actually happen, instead of bringing them to impossible heights. It’s relatable. It offers role models rather than runaway models.”… Continue reading →
The Significance of ‘Camp Rock’ 12 Years On
By Charlotte J | “So, why did I decide to revisit this film 12 years on? For starters, I’m still a big Jonas Brothers fan.”… Continue reading →