Best coming-of-age film in years
This is the best coming of age film I've seen in many years. It was also great as a character study.
I love the line "He's still walking around with my first kiss."
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I haven't seen many of the films in your post, so I can't take too much exception. BUT, the OP said they thought it was the best in years. Some of the movies you mention (Bend it like Beckham, Cinema Paradiso, My Life as a Dog, others) are 10+ years old. Doesn't make them unworthy films, but does make them part of a different conversation.
Also, I really think that in some ways you are stretching what the OP meant by a coming of age film. You are definitely stretching it if you are including The Graduate. Yes, The Graduate deals with a young(ish) character learning about life, but is in no way coming-of-age in the same way flipped is.
For my part, I loved this film. It's was a great example of a type of film that just isn't made much anymore. It's appropriate for pre-teens without trying to hard to be cool. It tells a very nice, very sweet story. You understand the motivations and feelings of both characters. It will not go down as a classic, but it will go down for me as a "really nice movie" that I will remember for a long time.
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Understandable criticisms. It didn't bring nostalgia of the 60s for me (which I guess I'm too young to have anyway) but it did bring nostalgia of childhood for me. It does lack substance, but there are different reasons to like different films. I guess 'coming of age' can apply in a lot of different ways, but I took the OPs intent to apply it to a similar age group.
I understand your complaint, but I actually liked the narration. It was sometimes unnecessary (but maybe less unnecessary for the 10-15 year old crowd that was clearly part of the target audience), but it also helped to flesh out the characters. Some the "Bryce was a jerk" threads on this board would, IMO, have more validity if we saw only his actions without his narration. Now admittedly, your counter argument is probably that a better film wouldn't have needed the narration, and you'd probably be right.
Still, for me at least, the movie worked. It was sweet and sentimental (perhaps a little sugary, but I fell for it), it was non-threatening, it was very enjoyable in a not-destined-to-be-a-classic sort of way.
pretty much agree with mathknapp.
would like to mention another very good (probably better) coming-of.age movie of the recent past: "Adventureland".
"We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school"
um no....i give it credit for telling a teen love story in a more intelligent way. Where you see the main characters both grow to like each other for more than simply their looks and actually care about personalities. However, i will say they need to stop making characters like the lead girl where we're told she's poor and weird, but its not actually shown. Seriously she literally lives right across from Bryce and im expected to believe she's lower class. PLEASE!!!! Also, the dad was just a caricature of every bad 60's dad in television history.
THE KILLING...where "ahh *beep* lets just say it was OJ" seems to be a logical ending
It's not shown that Juli is weird? She spends a year SNIFFING HIS HAIR! When they meet, she doesn't shut up for 2 seconds to breathe. And it's somehow not quite the endearing popular-girl-who-takes-a-lot way. She's weird. And they do show it.
On the poor end, they're not destitute, but the expenses for the uncle make them have to really stretch their money. Hence the lack of time and money to keep up the house and yard and such. They're not poorhouse poor, but they are lower middle class, lacking in discretionary income poor. Plus, (it's been a while since I've seen it so I might be wrong) but didn't they say in the movie that they were renting the house, and that they didn't want to hassle the landlord over repairs since they were struggled to make rent? I think I remember that, but I might be confusing this film with a different one.
I thought they did a good job of crafting an authentically poor and weird character instead of leaving the archetype as you describe it.
I loved this movie. Fabulous.
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