Not every coming-of-age movie needs to be autobiographical or even semi-autobiographical to be successful, but the entries in this genre are a lot more effective when the filmmakers aren’t afraid to put their own personality and experiences into the story and characters.
Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning masterpiece Moonlight is a prime example of a deeply personal coming-of-age movie that incorporates elements of the director’s own life. The movie is based on an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who based the story on his experiences with his drug-addicted mother. Jenkins connected to this story because his own mother was an addict.
Moonlight (2016)
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight immortalized the unproduced semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Jenkins felt a kindred spirit in McCraney, as they were both raised by drug-addicted mothers — which strongly influenced the story.
This movie chronicles its protagonist Chiron at three stages of his life: Trevante Rhodes plays him as an adult, Ashton Sanders plays him as a teenager, and Alex Hibbert plays him as a little kid.
Dazed And Confused (1993)
Heavily inspired by Richard Linklater’s own adolescence in Texas in the 1970s, Dazed and Confused is a hangout movie masterpiece revolving around a bunch of teens enjoying the last day of school.
A number of the characters featured in the movie — including the ice-cool Wooderson, made into an icon by Matthew McConaughey’s performance — were based on real people Linklater knew.
Superbad (2007)
Considering Superbad was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and the lead characters are called Seth and Evan, it’s pretty obvious that the story was a personal endeavor.
Rogen and Goldberg started writing the script when they were 13, so it just might be the only raunchy high school comedy about teenagers trying to lose their virginity that was actually written by teenage virgins.
Juno (2007)
Jason Reitman’s Juno is a delightfully quirky comedy about an unplanned teen pregnancy starring Elliot Page and Michael Cera. Diablo Cody’s Oscar-winning script was heavily influenced by her own teenage experiences.
Cody has said of the script, “Juno is like a personal, emotional scavenger hunt for me... I managed to get every person, quirk, and object that has meaning in my life into the script. I wanted to make it deeply personal.”
Almost Famous (2000)
Cameron Crowe wrote and directed Almost Famous based on his own experiences as a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Throughout his teen years, Crowe went on the road with such legendary bands as Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Eagles.
In the movie, the fictional William follows the fictional band Stillwater on tour. Kate Hudson steals the spotlight in the supporting role of Penny Lane.
Rushmore (1998)
Despite its failure at the box office, Wes Anderson’s directorial debut Bottle Rocket generated enough buzz around Hollywood to launch the director’s career. For his second feature-length effort, Anderson reteamed with Bottle Rocket co-writer Owen Wilson to pen Rushmore, a coming-of-age comedy about an ambitious kid at a prestigious school who falls in love with one of his teachers.
While the story wasn’t taken directly from Anderson or Wilson’s childhood, the director explained in an interview with Charlie Rose that they took plenty of details and moments from people they knew. He even shot the movie at the school he attended as a kid.
Boyhood (2014)
Another Linklater effort, Boyhood is an experimental masterpiece that was produced over the course of 12 years without a complete script, so that the cast and crew’s lives could be incorporated into the story.
For example, Ethan Hawke, who plays the kid’s dad, compiled “the Black Album” for his daughter while he was going through his own divorce. This Beatles mixtape found its way into the movie.
American Graffiti (1973)
A pre-Star Wars George Lucas achieved the box office success he needed to secure funding for his first trip to a galaxy far, far away with American Graffiti.
Set in Modesto, California in 1962, the time and place in which Lucas himself grew up, American Graffiti features a colorful cast of characters attached to the rock ‘n’ roll and cruising cultures in a series of vignettes.
Lady Bird (2017)
When she was asked how much of her solo directorial debut Lady Bird was based on her own childhood at a New York Film Festival press conference, Greta Gerwig said, “Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.”
The movie takes place in Gerwig’s hometown Sacramento, and much like Joan Didion and Lady Bird herself, she writes about Sacramento affectionately and with a lot of care.
The 400 Blows (1959)
François Truffaut’s directorial debut The 400 Blows is one of the most important movies ever made. It helped to define the style and themes of the French New Wave. The story follows Antoine Doinel, a rebellious kid in Paris who butts heads with his parents and teachers.
A lot of Doinel’s story came from Truffaut’s own childhood. The director would continue the semi-autobiographical adventures of Doinel for four more movies.