If you put "coming-of-age" in a synopsis, the following sentence is usually just descriptive word (a boy, a girl) followed by struggling to come to terms with something. These movies are boring.
shareThey can be boring because of the term "Coming of age" something about the way it sounds makes it far more important or serious than what it is. In the movie world, in most cases these films revolve around (usually) a group of teen males trying to get laid.
shareThey can be boring because of the term "Coming of age" something about the way it sounds makes it far more important or serious than what it is
Stand By Me was a coming of age story; the boys do a lot of growing up over the span of a short weekend and that was not a boring movie
shareBut that's got the whole dead body/Kiefer Sutherland chasing them thing.
shareTrue, but a proper 'coming of age' story has to be about something...
Take Dirty Dancing:
A young sheltered girl everyone calls 'Baby' experiences issues of classism, stands up for herself, falls in love, proves to her rigid but decent father that she is in fact a woman now, helps other people and becomes one of the best dancers the 60s era Catskills has ever seen...NOBODY puts Baby in a corner!
I don't think it has to be about anything. Lady Bird was loved by many and that movie is about nothing.
shareYep, my reaction to Lady Bird was "huh?" Lots of hubbub surrounding it, but I kept waiting for the good part.
I imagine everyone's "coming of age" is different. Some filled with drama, but I imagine most aren't.
They can be about nothing in particular and they can be about something specifically. They are not automatically boring.
shareNo. They could be like Stand By Me like ShogunOfYonkers said.
shareComing-of-age stories are not my favourite genre. However, the French movie My Father's Glory and its sequel My Mother's Castle are prime examples of the kind that's about "nothing", but I still find enjoyable and very touching.
shareThere are also "mood" movies which I enjoy. There isn't much story but it's about experiencing the mood. Coming-of-age movies just seem so safe.
shareYup, you nailed it. These movies are boring.
shareI always took the expression to mean the time when people are in that transition between being a kid and an adult. I've likes some of these movies. Stand By Me comes to mind right away.
shareIt's very rare where these movies can be intriguing. Most of the time they offer nothing new.
shareFrom the Hip (1987) comes to mind for me. Judd Nelson plays a freshman lawyer that goes from frat boy lawyer antics to receiving a murder defendant.
the movie itself comes of age in tone from a youthful fun and games first half to serious and responsibility second half.