Oftentimes the loud voices of those that claim their twenties are the best time of one's life drown out the turbulence of transitioning into adulthood. Whether finding a job in one's field without employment experience, being broke, and taming love, always waiting in the wing to catch one by surprise, the innocence that colors an adolescent's worldview slowly starts to crack.
The bittersweetness of liberating independence and the barbed reality that pursuing one's dreams is not as glamorous as initially imagined is characteristic, but not definitive of these movies. Those that choose youth as their subject have a zest for life that captures the hopeful and humorous mood of being a 20-something, and the unshakeable yet mortal idea of not being wrong, but simply misunderstood.
Almost Famous (2000)
Rock n' roll connoisseur social outcast William Miller receives the opportunity of a lifetime when he lands a job as a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine, and is assigned to cover the fictional band Stillwater during their cross country tour.
As William ingratiates himself into the band's inner circle, he becomes more of a roadie than a journalist, indulging in the hedonistic pleasures of the rock n' roll lifestyle. The relationships he forms with the band and their cohort of roadies eradicate any possibility of writing the objective article he has been tasked with. Unable to rip himself away from prospects of friendship and love that eluded him in his younger life, William compromises his blooming career. Almost Famous is a coming-of-age movie that speaks to the struggling balance between independence and responsibility.
American Honey (2016)
In search of an escape more than capital gain, a young woman named Star accepts a dubious offer from a mysterious and alluring young man, taking chance after chance as they freewheel across the American landscape. They become mesmerized with one another and enamored with their social anarchy, silently knowing it is only a moment in time like their fleeting youth.
More than most other teary-eyed glimpses at youth, this movie bridges the characteristic hedonism of youth with deeper questions about the nature of freedom and community during this turbulent period in life.
Before Sunrise (1995)
The best movie about an impulsive one-night stand ever made. When wanderlust meets chance in Before Sunrise, two lone young travelers from different parts of the world take each other by the hand and spend one night together in Venice.
As the night unfolds, Jessie and Celine ride streetcars with no destination in mind, encounter local characters on their walks through the Venetian streets and the promenade of the Danube. Knowing nothing about the other except their mutual attraction, the two strangers exchange their personal philosophies as they move through the even stranger city, falling helplessly in love. Their transient relationship celebrates the beauty of the fleeting nature of youth.
Frances Ha (2012)
For any 20-something experiencing an existential crisis about the direction their life is or isn't taking, this movie is for them. An updated portrayal of New York for the millennial generation, Frances Ha is about a fledgling ballerina who after spending her college years in Brooklyn, stands ungracefully on the precipice of adulthood.
The choice of black and white cinematography also fits this theme of struggling to accept the future. Romanticizing images of New York in the days of old, the monochrome brings into sharper focus the 21st century New York of Frances with its crushing modern realities.
Reality Bites (1994)
A social circle of recent college graduates, plagued by insurmountable student loans and disillusioning idealism, reject middle-class comforts to their parents' dismay in an effort to live a free-spirited life without letting go of their ethical principles. Each scene injects snarky sarcasm definitive of Generation X, as the main characters bite their tongues and roll their eyes at the boomers who control their professional lives and find their ironic behavior repugnant.
The main character Isabelle documents her friends' post-graduate lives. This movie within a movie contrasts how new graduates become locked into thankless entry-level positions, their dissatisfaction with the trajectory of their lives, and how they gleefully flounder in nihilistic listlessness during their spare time, finding no means to revolutionize their unfulfilling professional lives.
Slacker (1990)
In Richard Linklater's debut feature, each scene shines a limelight on the principles, preoccupations, and obsessions of those normally kept out of focus. It bums around the various circles of Austin can kickers, conspiracy theorists, street philosophers, creative idlers, and those who do not have any ambition to fit inside the pigeonholes parents, college, and the mainstream in general provide.
The Dreamers (2003)
When American university student Matthew goes on exchange to Paris amid the 1968 student riots, he meets a sexually liberal brother and sister at the historic Cinémathèque Française, bond over their passion for movies, and shortly thereafter move in together.
An erotic love triangle forms between them, engaging in playfully aimless late-night discussions and reenactments of their favorite popular culture references. As their sexual affair disintegrates, they take their pacifism to the volatile streets, spreading acts of peace and love amid so much discontent and violence.
The Souvenir (2019)
A semi-autobiographical story of the artist told from the perspective of a young woman, The Souvenir tells of an aspiring female film student Julie who hopes her art will finally distance her from her life of privilege.
Tilda Swinton's daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, stars as Julie and plays alongside her mother. Unfortunately familiar to so many in their twenties, Julie becomes a loving counterpart to the monster of addiction that possesses Anthony, her blighted artistic mentor and muse.
Weekend (2011)
Two strangers, college students Russell and Glen, have a one night stand that echoes with the initial murmurings of love. Glen reveals he is moving overseas, snuffing out the flame between them before it can erupt into the white blaze of passion it promises to be. The film is a melancholic examination of the fleeting nature of love that one experiences in their twenties, when it suddenly and unexpectedly arises, and when for reasons beyond anyone's control, it falls apart.
The realization sets in for Russell that people like Glen come along only a few times in a lifetime. In seeing Glen go, Russell also watches the narrow window of opportunity to find love shrink. This LGBTQ+ drama captures the intensity and rapid turbulence that wrack potential relationships when people are young and on the move.
Y Tu Mamá Tabién (2001)
An early entry from director Alfonso Curón of Roma fame, this movie follows a summer road trip across Mexico between two best friends entering their university years. At the last moment, the sensual Luisa, on the cusp of her thirties and ten years of experience over Julio and Tenoch, decides to join the boys much to their excitement.
In the movie's most poignant moment, Luisa is inside a phone booth crying so hard it looks like her heart may break, and a reflection of the boys obliviously carousing can be seen at the same time. These juxtaposing images summarize the movie's bittersweet acknowledgment that like youth, nothing lasts forever.