The coming-of-age genre is a fascinating one. Like any genre predicated on a familiar formula, it’s been used to create some of the greatest movies of all time, as well as some of the worst (The Blue Lagoon, Varsity Blues, LOL, etc.). Storytellers have been telling stories about growing up since the inception of storytelling because it’s a universally relatable experience: everyone on Earth has to go through the arduous existential struggle of becoming an adult.

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In terms of evoking the emotions related to reliving one’s childhood, Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut Lady Bird is arguably the pinnacle of the coming-of-age genre. But there are plenty of contenders.

Lady Bird Is The Best: It’s So Specific And Personal That It’s Universally Relatable

Christine and Marion in the opening shot of Lady Bird

There’s an old adage that the more specific and personal a movie is, the more relatable it will be. If the characters and settings and scenes all ring true, then every viewer will be able to connect with it.

The title character in Lady Bird goes to a Catholic high school in Sacramento in 2002, which Gerwig imbues with so much authenticity and verisimilitude that, in the viewer’s eye, it works as a stand-in for any high school anywhere any time.

Alternative: Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight (2016) by Barry Jenkins

Feeling a kindred spirit with a playwright whose background was similar to his own, Barry Jenkins adapted Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unproduced play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue into one of the greatest movies of the past decade.

More than deserving of its bungled Best Picture win over La La Land, Moonlight is anchored by a trio of powerful performances by Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, and Alex Hibbert, all playing the hero Chiron at different ages and rounding him out as one of the most memorable protagonists ever put on film.

Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali also give poignant supporting performances as Chiron’s drug-addicted mother and his drug-dealing protector, respectively.

Lady Bird Is The Best: It Covers All Facets Of The Coming-Of-Age Experience

Lady Bird

A lot of coming-of-age movies only tackle one aspect of the coming-of-age experience, like graduating from high school or getting a boyfriend or girlfriend, but Lady Bird covers it all.

Graduating from high school, getting a boyfriend, getting another boyfriend, arguing with parents, applying to colleges, making new friends who aren’t real friends, losing friendships with the real friends, rekindling those friendships — Lady Bird’s tightly crafted but loosely structured script takes a true deep dive into what it means to grow up.

Alternative: The 400 Blows (1959)

Antoine runs along the beach in The 400 Blows

François Truffaut’s directorial debut The 400 Blows has been lauded as a landmark in film history. It’s one of the definitive works of the French New Wave and established many of the characteristics that would go on to embody the movement’s films.

Like all great coming-of-age films (including Lady Bird, which was heavily influenced by Truffaut’s 1959 masterpiece), The 400 Blows is a semi-autobiographical story drawing on the director’s own rebellious childhood.

Lady Bird Is The Best: It’s Endlessly Rewatchable

Saoirse Ronan and Beanie Feldstein in Lady Bird

Some movies only hold up for a couple of viewings. Others don’t even warrant a second time, and some can barely be withstood for their entire runtime on the first go. But there are also those movies that are so perfectly crafted that they never get old, and Lady Bird is one of them.

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It’s a movie that evokes so many different emotions and is so densely packed with compelling story and character material that it’s endlessly rewatchable.

Alternative: Stand By Me (1986)

Stand by Me

Based on the Stephen King short story “The Body,” Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me uses the simplistic setup of four boys’ search for a dead body that’s rumored to be in the woods as a vehicle for emotional journeys for each of the characters.

Ultimately, Stand by Me’s greatest asset is its perfectly matched cast — Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell — whose impeccable chemistry makes their on-screen lifelong friendship so believable.

Lady Bird Is The Best: Saoirse Ronan’s Lead Performance Is Spectacular

Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird

Ultimately, what makes Lady Bird work so well is Saoirse Ronan’s incredible performance in the title role. An Irish actor raised in New York and Dublin played a teenager from Sacramento so convincingly, you’d think she was a lifelong Sacramentan like her director.

Ronan is backed up by a bunch of terrific supporting performances. Laurie Metcalf steals the show as Lady Bird’s mother, but Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Timothée Chalamet are all great in the movie, too.

Alternative: Boyhood (2014)

Boyhood

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was a daring experiment: over the course of 12 years, he shot a coming-of-age movie as his leading actor actually grew up in real time. In the hands of a master filmmaker like Linklater, the ambition paid off. Boyhood is now frequently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made.

RELATED: Richard Linklater's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Over the course of that 12-year production, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke all developed a rapport strong enough that their on-screen family is convincing. Linklater’s minimalist shooting style highlights the naturalism of each scene.

Lady Bird Is The Best: It’s As Close To Perfect As A Movie Can Be

Saoirse Ronan as Christine in Lady Bird

At its very best, cinema can reflect life. Sounds and images come together to create a heightened version of the world as we live it and feel it. With characters that feel like real people who make realistic mistakes and moments of both hilarious comedy and tear-jerking drama in spades, Lady Bird is as close to perfect as a movie can be.

From the opening shot that encapsulates the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the movie to Lady Bird’s cathartic phone message in the final moments, Lady Bird is a prime example of the art of cinema firing on all cylinders.

Alternative: The Graduate (1967)

Katharine Ross and Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

Getting seduced by your dad’s business partner’s wife isn’t exactly universally relatable, but being thrust into the adult world with no idea what you’re going to do with your life certainly is.

Mike Nichols’ The Graduate is one of the most important movies in the transition into the New Hollywood movement, while Dustin Hoffman’s lead performance as Benjamin Braddock is possibly the best of his entire career.

NEXT: Rocky: 5 Reasons It's The Best Sports Movie (& 5 Alternatives)