1. Sixteen Candles
The ultimate birthday dilemma – your family forgets your birthday. For a 16-year-old girl this might be the worst thing that could happen, but when your high school crush has an equally popular and beautiful girlfriend, you’ve got yourself a full-fledged teenage tragedy! Andy, the middle child, struggles with an identity crisis as she tries to find her place in both her family and at school. With the help of a crazy foreign exchange student named Long Duk Dong and the nerdy, self-proclaimed “King of The Dipshits”, this movie is the ultimate coming-of-age comedy.
2. Dazed and Confused
Personally, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is set in a small 70’s Texas town on the last day of school, a time for the upperclassmen to haze the incoming freshman with plenty of booze and weed to fuel their shenanigans. As you can guess, hilarity ensues as freshman Mitch tries to navigate the social circles of high school. This flick takes a close look at the transition from high school to the real world and the tough decisions teenagers must make to find themselves. Add in Matthew McConaughey’s hilarious one-liners like “that’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age,” and this film is sure to keep you laughing.
3. Moonrise Kingdom
This quirky indie work from writer and director Wes Anderson is an instant classic. When two young pen pals fall in love and decide to run away together their small New England town is turned upside down. The two lovers, wise beyond their years, find comfort in each other after being alienated from their friends and family for being different. An excellent cast complete with actors such as Edward Norton and Bill Murray takes the story to a new level.
4. Stand by Me
In this 80’s classic, a rag tag group of friends set out to find the body of a missing boy from their hometown, but they run into some obstacles along the way and end up learning a lot about themselves and each other. This enduring film deals with the pain of loss and the feeling of not being good enough. Although some of the themes are pretty heavy, they’re offset by moments of pure hilarity. I dare you not to laugh when they unknowingly dive into a pond full of leeches.
5. 50/50
This dark comedy starring one of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, centers on a 27-year-old guy dealing with his cancer diagnosis. Throughout his treatment he deals with a flaky best friend, an overbearing mother and a cheating girlfriend. His struggles with illness allow him to change from a shy, people pleaser to a determined man who stands up for himself. With the help of his clumsy yet adorable therapist, played by Anna Kendrick, he learns what is truly important in life.
6. The Sandlot
If you’re a child of the 90’s and haven’t seen The Sandlot, “you’re killing me Smalls!” This feel-good film centers on Scotty Smalls, the new kid in town who is kind of a dweeb until cool-kid Benny takes him under his wing and teaches him how to play baseball with his group of friends. Everyone has those childhood best friends who they eventually lose touch with, and this film is a perfect example of that. They’re enjoying the summer until Scotty mistakenly lends the gang a baseball signed by Babe Ruth (The Sultan of Swat, The King of Crash, The Great Bambino), which they proceed to hit over the fence into the yard of a terrifying Kujo-esque dog named The Beast.They are then forced to devise a plan to get it back.
7. Almost Famous
Imagine going on tour with a rock band in the 70’s. Sounds pretty crazy right? Now imagine you’re fifteen. In this Oscar winning film, William is on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine to write an article about up-and-coming band Stillwater. Along the way he learns all about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll while falling for one of the band’s groupies, Penny Lane.
8. The Descendants
This film is the perfect combination of dark humor and drama. George Clooney plays a lawyer in Hawaii who discovers his wife, who is in a coma as a result of a boating accident, has been cheating on him. Even worse, his troubled daughter (played by Shailene Woodley) is the one who breaks the news to him. Riddled with confusion, he takes his two daughters and a friend out of town in order to find and confront his wife’s lover. Throughout the movie, he goes through a range of emotions from sadness to anger to resentment to grief, but he ultimately finds peace as he reconnects with his daughters and begins to see life clearly.
9. The Perks of Being A Wallflower
Freshman year of high school can be pretty tough, especially when you’re painfully shy and have a pretty depressing past. Thankfully, Charlie makes some older friends who teach him about love and friendship. One of the most touching and relatable movies I’ve ever seen, this one will definitely have you reaching for a box of Kleenex.
10. Silver Linings Playbook
When Pat (Bradley Cooper) returns to his parent’s home in Philadelphia after a stint in a mental institution for almost beating his wife’s lover to death, he’s determined to get his life back on track. His plans are derailed when he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a mysterious young widow with a dark past of her own. Mental illness plays a large role in the film, as Pat struggles with bipolar disorder and his father (Robert De Niro) struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which manifests itself in an unhealthy fixation with the Philadelphia Eagles. Throughout the film, the characters share their ups and downs trying to deal with their issues. In the end, it turns out having a support system, no matter how crazy they may be, is in fact a silver lining.
Picture snapped from the film.
