Considering how few of us actually want to relive our youth, it’s amazing how many films focus on this period in a character’s life. Fortunately, movies about those tender years between tween and 20-something rarely resemble what we ourselves actually went through, but they feature themes that everyone can relate to – dealing with confusing, intense emotions, becoming entwined in out-of-control situations that we’re not equipped to deal with, and feeling misunderstood. This is why we revere James Dean and early Marlon Brando, and why we’re excited to see Harmony Korine’s trashy looking film “Spring Breakers.” With Korine’s movie hitting theaters in Los Angeles and New York today, we’ve decided to revisit some of our favorite films about troubled youths who find themselves in over their heads.
“400 Blows” (1959)
Director: François Truffaut
Country: France
Truffaut’s first film introduced his most famous character, Antoine Doinel, who despite having not yet reached puberty gets in so much trouble that his own parents have him locked up with criminals. He’s sent to a juvenile detention center for observation, but he breaks out and heads for the ocean, because nothing can hold back Antoine.
“The Warped Ones” (1960)
Director: Koreyoshi Kurahara
Country: Japan
Most people just out of prison are on their best behavior. Not Akira, the wayward teen played by Tamio Kawachi at the center of Kurahara’s dizzying film. The character uses his newfound freedom to set off on a weeks-long rampage through his old stomping ground. Further proof of the movie’s rawness: it was first released in the United States as a sexploitation film called “The Weird Lovemakers” – a title that someone theoretically found arousing.
“Over the Edge” (1979)
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Country: United States
Plenty of films have explored the effects that suburban life has on kids, but few have done it as memorably as Kaplan’s cult classic. The film, which introduced the world to Matt Dillon, focuses on a group of kids living in a planned community. Naturally, they’re bored by the life their disinterested parents have made for them and they decide to rebel. A lot of alcohol and drugs are ingested, petty vandalism occurs, and the adults and kids become sworn enemies.
“Suburbia” (1983)
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Country: United States
Made three years after “The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization,” Spheeris’s documentary about the late-’70s/early-’80s Los Angeles punk scene, “Suburbia” follows a group of young punks who decide to stop trying to be accepted by a society they feel no connection to. Rather than hire young actors to pretend to be punks, the director went for the real deal, casting street kids and musicians – including The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.
“Akira” (1988)
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Country: Japan
Delinquent teens aren’t always causing mayhem – sometimes they’re tasked with saving the day. At least that’s the case for the pill popping gang leader Kaneda, who’s forced to go up against his former best friend Tetsuo, the latter having developed psychic powers that threaten to destroy Neo Tokyo and the whole world in Otomo’s landmark cyberpunk anime.
“La Haine” (1995)
Director: Mathieau Kassovitz
Country: France
The end of adolescence doesn’t mean an end to feeling disaffected, as Kassovitz’s piercing film about a group of three buddies in their early 20s – played by Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, and Saïd Taghmaoui – from the Parisian suburbs plainly shows. Add the brutal police beating of the trio’s friend, a gun, and a night of aimless wandering, and the results are bound to be bad for everyone involved.
“The Doom Generation” (1995)
Director: Greg Araki
Country: United States
Rarely has a film’s title been as appropriate as that of the second part of Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy.” The film is about two teens who hit the road with a drifter and end up accidentally killing a convenience store owner before becoming entangled in a not-particularly-healthy love triangle. Yeah, we’d say that sounds like doom.
“Better Luck Tomorrow” (2002)
Director: Justin Lin
Country: United States
Being a good kid can be so boring. Unfortunately Ben, Virgil, Daric, and Han learn that an exciting life isn’t all that great either. Lin’s film follows a group of overachievers who see their plan to earn some extra cash spiral quickly out of control, leading to bleeding septums, murder, and finally suicide.
“Mean Creek” (2004)
Director: Jacob Aaron Estes
Country: United States
What’d you know – a revenge film where things don’t go as planned. Here an innocent plot by a group of teens to get back at one of their little brother’s tormentors ends up with the bully dead and everyone else at a loss as to what to do. The bullied younger brother is played by Rory Culkin – are any teen actors more suited to play troubled kids than the Culkins?
“This is England” (2006)
Director: Shane Meadows
Country: United Kingdom
Finding acceptance is important for everyone, but occasionally the group that accepts you – in this case a nationalistic hate group – is one you should flee from. That’s what Shaun, played by Thomas Turgoose, learns in Meadow’s film about coming of age in Margaret Thatcher’s England.