Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Project)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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dustin
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#76 Post by dustin » Wed Apr 20, 2016 7:42 am

Off the top of my head:

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette was on TV last night. I ended up watching the whole thing again. It would fit this category no? Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence and Evolution would also fit the category. Mia Hansen-Løve's Father of My Children, Goodbye First Love & Eden. Breillat's trilogy of fairytales, Joachim Trier's Reprise, Gabriel Mascaro's August Winds, Kore-Eda's Nobody Knows, I Wish, etc..

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Satori
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#77 Post by Satori » Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:31 am

I recently skimmed through my films spreadsheet and realized that there are easily enough youth-oriented films I love for me to participate in this project. So, better late than never, here are a couple that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Mädchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931)- a lock for my #1. One of the most beautiful films in all of cinema, it conveys the impossible combination of torment and elation of a first childhood crush, largely through close-ups of Manuela’s face. Beyond all its obvious cinematic virtues, MIU is also a great childhood movie because it captures both the experience of being young and makes an argument for what childhood should be like. I think the latter is just as important as the former in these sorts of films: even if the context of an incipient fascism is not our own (hopefully), the authoritarianism and disregard for the feelings of the children is all too familiar.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - My favorite Hitchcock. Despite Cotton’s brilliance, this is (young) Charlie’s story: we share her frustration with her insipid family and small town, yearning for something more. We share her fascination with Uncle Charlie (with a clear undercurrent of sexuality), but already know the secret evil that she must uncover herself. There are also so many great odd touches, like her father and his young friend who comes over to discuss murders (and who, like in Rope or Strangers on a Train, seem like a gay couple sublimating their desire through fantasies of murder), or the hauntingly vacant and empty face of the server in the bar Uncle Charlie takes young Charlie to, an acting performance that reminds me of Bresson.

La Chinoise (1967) - One of the highpoints of my favorite period of Godard (65-67), in which the form always gets ahead of the content, which will retroactively turn out to be the journey toward May ’68. The narrative of a failed revolution—a result of youthful enthusiasm that is historically out of time, as explained by the Wiazemsky character's professor on the train—rhymes with the “failures” which end nearly all the films from this period (one crucial exception being the coda to Made in U.S.A. , which prefigures the Utopianism of 68). But the form is vividly alive, from the Brechtian direct address to the completely horizontal x-axis tracking shot from outside the balcony during the lectures. And, of course, the great “Mao Mao” musical number.

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#78 Post by knives » Tue May 03, 2016 2:58 pm

The Kindergarten Teacher
This is a more mild film then the thriller that Kino is selling this as, but that genre tease gets at what is so great here. The responsibility of a teacher can be contradictory encouraging students to open up their natural talents and grow, fitting in with the entendre that's a bit more forceful in hebrew for the title, yet keeping a distance so that you don't become involved with that growth. Lapid is brilliant at capturing the personal horror and professional disappointment that this contradiction can bring up if the later elements wear down as it does here in the face of Yoav's bizarre poetic genius. It's creepy and disturbing to watch her fall apart because she becomes too involved with being a gardener. This is done without a bit of realism to the profession, but I don't think that is part of the film's goals which seem aligned with more interior truths so I'm not holding that against Lapid.

Sarit Larry conveys all of this beautifully, but the way Avi Shnaidman is coached is what makes this so effective a terror. Essentially he is left as just a kid with a documentary sense to his performance so strong I wouldn't be surprised if Lapid just filmed him messing around for the most part. Even when he has to do something for the plot like the poetry recitals there's a awkward fidgety nature to him that lets him seem unaware of all the talk the adults are doing for him. He's a completely passive character which heightens the feeling that all of these adults are imprinting their feelings onto him rather then taking him as the average toddler he is. The only thing that seems to take him at face value is the camera. It doesn't do any point of view shots from him, but in scenes where he is present the camera often is taken from his eye line cutting off the adults as the torso and giving a sense of distraction from the ongoing events. There's additional musing about the place of art in Israeli society, ethnic strife within the Jewish community of Tel Aviv, and the economic difficulties in the era of Netanyahu but they aren't dealt with in a terribly interesting fashion and are given too little screentime to be worth more then a mention.

17 Girls
This suffers terribly from generic European arthouse syndrome doing nothing with its premise and refusing to build characters seemingly out of fear that it will mess with the shining white cinematography. A film being aesthetic only is fine, but demands an aesthetic unique to the film not something you can find at any old cinema. There's some stuff here suggesting the central girl as a sociopath tricking the other girls into this stupid plot, but the film doesn't do anything with this leaving it as a nonstarter. The other girls are too anonymous to feel any sort of emotion for and she's too inconsistently drawn for the antagonism to come across as much more then bizarre.

Treasure Island (Fleming)
This is my first straight adaptation of Sevenson's book so it still has a little novelty and Fleming at first looks to be making good on this first impression. The opening is fantastic with moody horror cinematography which fits with some surprisingly grim violence for a children's film. The performances are pretty good too being lively or at least in Cooper's case the norm aided by some ugly physicality. Unfortunately Barrymore (who despite short screentime is the most memorable thing on display) kicks the bucket, the cinematography turns to bland respectability more typical of Fleming, and Beery pops up giving a performance that only be described as condescension to the material by someone too stupid to know how to condescend. Hopefully some of the other adaptations are better.

Girl Crazy
The film seems to think endlessly humiliated Rooney in increasingly cruel ways covers for laughing at the yokels. Only Garland does anything of interest seemingly using this as an audition for Howard Hawks. Charles Walters and Busby Berkeley do good work though neither are at the top of their game.

Presenting Lily Mars
Norman Taurog films aren't supposed to be this good especially with the fluid camera work. Ruttenberg seriously earned his paycheck here. The only draw back is that the romance is all sorts of creepy with the age difference really emphasized here.

13 Going on 30
Jennifer Garner really sells this and keeps it afloat as more than just a gender switched Big. It's genuinely surprising how much effort she puts into this silly little film even doing this high pitch with her voice that's a brilliant piece of continuity with her younger self. The other real advantage this has over Big is just how quickly paced it is with Winick's team editing this down to the bone. The only real flaw I can speak of, though it poisons the punch for me too much, is the over reliance on cringe humour which clashes with the sweetness Garner captures so well.

21 Jump Street
Cute, it plays out like a low rent Edgar Wright movie never quite capturing his intelligence or attention to detail. Though Mark Mothersbaugh does the score which balances things out a bit. One aspect I wish they played up a bit more was the generation gap because going back to my interest in the lack of genuine Gen X movies outside of a small window of time this feels like a very contemporary one with a simultaneous love and frustration with the youth (though again in this aspect it fails to quite capture its closest relations of Detention and Greenberg).

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#79 Post by domino harvey » Wed May 04, 2016 4:11 pm

Presenting Lily Mars was the first film I saw from Taurog that was anything other than pedestrian, and then I saw Skippy (also eligible for this list, though neither will make mine), for which he won an Oscar, and I had to give him some respect for his ability to corral all those child perfs. But yeah, otherwise, another lowlevel Hollywood director out of the Archie Mayo school of Gettin' Paid. Glad you liked, even with reservations, 13 Going on 30 too.

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#80 Post by knives » Wed May 04, 2016 4:20 pm

Yeah, I was surprised I liked it as much as I did considering how wrong his Charlotte's Web adaptation was. It's not perfect, but a bit like the Taurog films it balances fun in such a unadorned way it's easy to give it some benefit of the doubt.

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copen
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#81 Post by copen » Fri May 06, 2016 4:13 pm

Boy A (2007 John Crowley) imdb

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#82 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 06, 2016 4:53 pm

A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (Michael Gottlieb 1995) The only film imaginable where the kid from Rookie of the Year gets top billing over Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet, though I suspect those two left this project off their CVs a long time ago! Cashing in on the success of Rookie of the Year, Disney threw the same kid into a baseball outfit and transported him back to the days of King Arthur in this loose, silly, and cheap-looking update of Mark Twain’s oft-adapted classic. Daniel Craig does sport some truly terrible feathered bangs though, for those interested in such things.

the Blue Bird (Maurice Tourneur 1918) Invigoratingly florid work of childlike creativity following some kids as they manifest dream realities from misheard and misunderstood passing concepts. This kind of thing could be interminably mawkish in the wrong hands, but the film plays it with a melancholy toughness in how it dismisses without cause many of the fantastical beings the kids encounter. Recommended.

Born to Be Bad (Lowell Sherman 1934) Loretta Young is a prostitute raising her son to be tough and streetwise but her brittle nature causes her to lose custody to Cary Grant, playing a character with so little relation to actual human characteristics and emotions that the last reel could have revealed he was from Mars and the film would have made more sense. Young is truly a shit here, and I was bothered by the efforts of the filmmakers to paint her with any sympathy, as she’s just rotten to the point of annoyance and plot-contrivance. By the time she sees the light at the end, I was already ready for her to throw herself in front of a milk truck.

City of Pirates (Raul Ruiz 1983) Starts off weird and then just keeps pushing forward past the point of any resistance. Intentionally cryptic puzzle films without a solution are usually a losing proposition for me, but this one works by virtue of its bravado and never-ending catalog of strange sights and happenings. I don’t know if this is the best Peter Pan story, but it’s gotta be the most bizarre at least! Highly recommended.

Days of Youth (Yasujiro Ozu 1929) Genial but uninspiring collegiate buddy comedy, a board search reveals senses of humor really aren’t universal.

Le Amiche (Michelangelo Antonioni 1955) Similar in tone and success to Bergman’s Dreams in showing a master not quite masterful of his material and struggling with the melodramatic possibilities inherent in the narrative. Like Dreams, it's just not very good or interesting and is frankly a bit of a mess.

Making the Grade (Dorian Walker 1984) Unbelievably, this was intended to jumpstart a franchise of adventures starring Judd Nelson and future Burbs-screenwriter Dana Olsen, and there’s even a promise in the end credits that the two will be back. Thank God that didn’t happen. Olsen is a spoiled rich brat who hires Nelson to impersonate him at private school so he can gallivant around instead of doing his studies. Complications ensue. Comedy does not. Olsen is so so so so so so so obnoxious in this movie, and he thinks he’s doing the Bill Murray in Meatballs thing (and he is, to my eyes, but that’s still not a compliment).

Rookie of the Year (Daniel Stern 1993) Goofy wish fulfillment that my generation ate up, this still mostly holds up as a sweet but slight tale of a twelve year old who gets drafted by the Cubs and must balance newfound fame with being a kid. Let’s be real, there’s only one thing anyone remembers from this movie.

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#83 Post by knives » Fri May 06, 2016 6:00 pm

I wouldn't have thought to describe the Ruiz as a puzzle film since, as you kind of say, its not really interested in answering any questions of its internal logic (though I think there is an internal logic going on). Ruiz seems much more invested in pursuing the furthest off conclusions that a psychological take on Pan would accomplish.

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bottled spider
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#84 Post by bottled spider » Thu May 19, 2016 10:44 am

The Day I Became a Woman (Marziyeh Meshkini, 2000)
Same director as Stray Dogs (2004), also very good, also eligible for the list. The Day I Became a Woman tells three stories, the first and last of which qualify it as a Film of Youth.

The first is about a girl turning nine, the day she must adopt the chador and cease playing with boys. She negotiates a temporary reprieve on the grounds she was born at noon, winning a precious hour to say goodbye to the boy next door. The girl is instructed to use a stick as a makeshift sundial, and much of the poignancy of the film derives from the simple but powerful device of keeping the viewer aware of time running out. Meshkini has a great sense of visual poetry.

The last is about an old woman on the threshold of death. A group of young boys figure prominently enough to make this episode relevant to the project. It's an interesting idea that wasn't quite executed successfully, so I won't go into it.

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#85 Post by knives » Thu May 19, 2016 8:17 pm

High School Hell Cats
This has got to be one of John Waters favorite movies and not just because the lead Hellcat looks like the devil spawn of Mercedes McCambridge and Divine. It has that weird balance between stiff as a wood board and over the top; wholesome innocent attitude and ironic perversion that Waters masters so completely. Just for context this is a film where wearing pants is assumed to always lead to murderous lesbian love triangles. The love triangle by the way is basically left as explicit text thanks to what is either an incompetent or genius failure at implicating homosexuality for subtext. This movie is also as square as can be with the voice of reason pedophile boyfriend giving the audience the Sam Loomis treatment for starters. Yet there's a really fascinating element of the movie getting things right that puts it miles ahead of other Rebel Without a Cause knock-offs. The whole slapping scene or the later talk about respect and responsibility have a verve to it that frankly is absent from the rest of Bernds' career.

Fat Girl
Really the only interesting thing here is how the original goes from the thematically interesting To My Sister to the blunt and stupid Fat Girl. Like pretty much every other Breillat film I've seen this isn't particularly interesting with very rote characterization tied to dull cliches on female sexuality. The sibling rivalry could be interesting, but the characters are so flat that the literal story offers nothing on it and the psychology so primitive that any allegory or symbolism or anything else of that nature is stunted into being another part of this dull mesh. It doesn't help that Celine Sciamma's pseudo-remake Water Lilies handles this sibling rivalry a million times better (though that film is by a long distance Sciamma's worst). All of this is to say the film is dull, but not the offensively bad film some of the critics seem to make of it. The film does seem to take place in a weird alternate world where these sex acts are mundane which clashes hilariously with some of the Pialat borrowed techniques on display which I can understand as being annoying and another sign of how bad the film is, but seems to clueless to generate genuine offense. Also this film is mercifully short so that its accomplish nothing attitude doesn't grate. The ending is stupid, but it doesn't strike me as entirely random (or at least random without a purpose) with the fat sister taking advantage of the situation to be in control of the mis-en-scene. In a certain respect it's the only thing worth talking about in this lame bore. Though I have to admit that Colin's comments in its thread for about an eighth of a second had me reconsider myself.

Wetlands
This lame Hot Topic commercial desperately tries to be the Chris Nolan of John Waters movies (it seems to be a very John Waters viewing period for me), but is only so in a pejorative sense. I'll admit there are a few successful squirm inducing moments, but they surprisingly take a back seat to a child's version of Wit told in the most ponderous and self absorbed way possible and unlike in the Nichols' film there's no knowledge that this useless protagonist is going to die to make any of this engaging. This is a film so incompetently told that it spends three minutes introducing a character as the friend of the lead, but then thinks the audience is so dumb that it has to blare in faux punk rock letters a sign saying that this character is the friend of the protagonist. What a dumb and self satisfied film.

Barely Lethal
This film really beats you down to a pulp with the likability of the actors and the sincerity that it engages with the genre cliches so that it absolutely has to win you over. I'm not entirely convinced this is a good movie, it takes too long to get its grounding and feels like an unusually well handled Disney Channel movie, but it is such a nice one that negatively critiquing it feels like bullying. That said all of the in high school stuff whether comedic or dramatic is well handled and very good that when mixed with the sincerity for a good forty minutes or so it almost convinces of being a new classic of the genre and probably would have had it had a distributor who didn't clash so strongly with the film. So sorry Dom that it won't be making my list, but thanks anyway for giving it the push as it is satisfying in its own fashion.


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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#87 Post by knives » Wed May 25, 2016 12:57 am

domino harvey wrote: Pan (Joe Wright 2015)
Joe Wright’s sci-fi reimagining of the Pan myth, Pan, received similarly toxic critical notices, but here I think the naysayers are off base. This is one of the most bizarre big budget films I’ve ever seen, and while not everything works (As Moulin Rouge! and Easy Virtue have already proven, nothing stops a film deader in its tracks than period reimaginings of present day pop songs), more than enough does to make it worthwhile. The film is heavily CGIed, but as in Life of Pi, the reliance on computer graphics gives us some truly original and strange worlds and uses: Taking the opening of the Meaning of Life to the extreme, the pirate ships here fly through space and sky; A battle scene midway through the film turns into a color run, with victims of gunshots exploding into brightly-shaded powder; And a trip to the fairy kingdom in the finale looks like it takes place in a microscopic view of a snowflake. Unlike in other Pan adaptations, Peter is now a reluctant hero who insists he’s not special or important for most of the running time, and the modesty helped the character finally attain some level of sympathy from me. I enjoyed Garrett Hedlund’s feature length Howard Keel impression, and internet bellyaching over Rooney Mara’s Tiger Lily is proven rather eyerollingly overblown, to the surprise of no one.

Pan gets a hearty recommendation for the adventurous, Peter Pan can be skipped or tolerated at one’s leisure, and Hook should be boiled in oil.
I wish I remembered your Moulin Rouge comment because that Nirvana song practically caused me to turn off the film. Fortunately I didn't if just because this is an amazingly beautiful film. It's not as good as Hanna, but it's the rare children's film to feel artistically invested and knowledgeable about how kids interact with the world. There's a certain kids logic here that elevates the rather cliched chosen one stuff. Also the constant call backs to the source material allow the film to be rather bittersweet without ever directly applying the tone that way. It's almost Ronald Dahlesque.

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#88 Post by MongooseCmr » Wed May 25, 2016 2:54 pm

dustybooks wrote:It's of course hardly a film that needs extra championship (and Dom's already mentioned it), but Rebel Without a Cause is the most sympathetic treatment of adolescence offered on film that I have seen. What's most telling about it is that despite its age, when I saw it as a sixteen year-old it moved me to tears because it seemed like such a direct, passionate communication and expressed every kind of yearning I found impossible to articulate. For years I assumed it would lose much of this power for any adult, but each time I see the film I am effortlessly returned to the illogical hugeness of those emotions.
I liked Rebel quite a bit, but I can't agree with "illogical hugeness of those emotions." Jim is dealing with a hell of a lot of serious stuff over the course of that day (2 classmates dying, a knife fight, a brush with his own death, being chased by thugs, and a new friend with a homoerotic quasi-Oedipus complex and a gun.) It's enough to make men well out of their teenage years want to cry, and while it makes for great melodrama I think it's at odds with the core of teen angst. To me those years are defined by big emotions for relatively small problems, and Rebel is so packed with incident and conflict that it sort of detracts from those universal but temporary and fleeting feelings.

You mentioned The Replacements, and I would say their album Let it Be is easily the greatest artistic interpretation of being teenager. All social and sexual insecurity, anxiety brimming under restless boredom.

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#89 Post by bottled spider » Wed Jun 01, 2016 8:23 pm

Pauline at the Beach (Rohmer)
Much more screen time is devoted to the adults in this film, but toward the end Pauline emerges from the background as the central character. She is the nexus of the other characters, and takes the measure of all their folly. So the film is more aptly a Film of Youth than The Collectioneuse or Claire's Knee, which unfold from the perspective of the older characters.

Originally this was one of my least favourite Rohmers. Revisiting it for this project has been a real pleasure. There are some interesting moral complexities. The somewhat amoral Henri, by virtue of his competence and tact, avoids causing problems for himself and others. The sincere and basically decent Pierre, by virtue of his bumbling, gracelessness, and petulance, manages to be a nuisance to all. Good taste trumps morals? Or is perhaps itself a kind of morality. Another contrast: Pierre stands in rebuke for being a tattle-tale and meddler, yet Sylvain stands equally in rebuke for allowing himself, out of discretion, to be made party to a deception. How can they both be wrong?

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#90 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:01 am

Reminder that lists are due in two and a half weeks. School's out (or almost out), get workin' on compiling your lists!

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knives
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#91 Post by knives » Mon Jun 13, 2016 3:16 am

I should probably get some last minute pleading in though I'm sure it's exactly what I won't expect which is what will wind up being the orphans. It's perhaps too personal a choice, but I really hope people pull for Clueless which in addition being the best of the '90s attempts at a Tashlin aesthetic as the casual norm is really forward thinking and complex in how it understand the growing development in gender and ethnic relations among kids in an increasingly global society. It's not through philosophy or a deliberate revolutionary push that will get people to come together, but a nonchalant sense of whatever and duh. It also serves as probably the best example of that popular '90s genre of updating classic literature and theater to the modern era.

Also as a quick name off Hello Hemingway and Pariah are both great in terms of the genre if not necessarily as films capturing lives that for one reason or another are never shown on film. Both are incredibly immersive into the working class culture that tries to disenfranchise and make weak their female protagonists who are trying to get just a little bit of happiness through that mystical idea of independence. I can only imagine that the final list will be heavily dominated by films about male youth so it strikes me as all the more important to let be known such painfully honest tales of female youth which are unadorned by stylized hooks to put them in more comfortable genre territory that many other stories about young women get. (I'm actually surprised that 18 on my list can comfortably claim a significant primacy to a female point of view with about six having women being a major part of an ensemble).

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#92 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:59 am

Lists are due in one week. Three lists have been submitted so far and two of the most obvious (and deserving) titles one would automatically think to be a shoo-in for the top spot are still voteless, though this often happens so early in the game. Remember that anyone reading this can participate by submitting a list to me, even if you didn't post in this thread

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#93 Post by Feego » Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:03 am

I had really hoped to actively participate in this thread, but alas things came up. If it's not considered too lazy, I'd like to link back to a few write-ups I did in the 80s project for some movies that will make my final list:

The Last American Virgin (1982)

Barefoot Gen 2 (1986) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Return to Oz (1985)

A couple more titles that will make my list that have yet to be brought up:

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969, Ronald Neame)
While Maggie Smith's title character--an unorthodox teacher with Fascist sympathies in 1930s Edinburgh--is ostensibly the main character, this film presents a wonderful look at her impressionable students. The leader of the pack is Sandy, played by the great Pamela Franklin, who has the most dramatic arc from devoted fangirl to a more freethinking young woman who grows weary of Brodie's eccentricities. In contrast, there is Mary McGregor (played by Jane Carr and always called by her full name), a stuttering, shy girl who looks to Brodie as a surrogate mother figure and remains a blind follower. In many ways, this film is the anti-Dead Poets Society, examining how charismatic teachers can have both positive and devastating impacts on their students, particularly those who view them as infallible heroes. Aside from that, however, there are truly poignant moments of humor and insight into adolescence. One of my favorite scenes involves Sandy and another girl practicing a tango while discussing that taboo subject of sex. At this point, they are about 12 or 13, and their understanding of it is barely rudimentary. Among other things, they ponder the likelihood of two people actually going through with the act after taking off their clothes, which would surely put them off their passion. Another great scene, taking place roughly a year later, has the girls imagining Brodie and her lover's sexual positions and then bursting into giggles when Sandy says they will have to watch Brodie's stomach. All of the young actresses were around 19 or 20 at the time and required to age from roughly 12 to 18 over the course of the film. They are truly excellent and believable, particularly Franklin, who holds her own against Smith in every scene, vitally so at the film's climax.

The Bad Seed (1956, Mervyn LeRoy)
I know this film is not a forum favorite, but I really love the high melodrama of it and Patty McCormack's bratty performance. She's basically a self-aware monster in Shirley Temple clothing, her character acting the part of the perfect child in a performance so transparent that the audience can only laugh at the fact that the adults in the film buy it. In her DVD commentary, McCormack points out that her natural Brooklyn accent is audible in some of her angrier moments, and it works well for her. When she lets her guard down, there's a baseness, a kind of animal instinct that slips through her outwardly refined facade. It's fitting that the only adults to see through her and readily accept that she's capable of murder are the alcoholic mother of one of her victims (the amazing Eileen Heckart) and a pervy gardener. Best of all, it all seems to be done with tongue firmly in cheek. Many take superiority in laughing at the movie's "unintentional" humor, but come on, the post curtain-call spanking scene perfectly betrays the movie's true tone.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969, Bill Melendez)
I suppose one could make strong arguments for any of the Peanuts features. This one isn't even my favorite, but it's the most depressing, so it gets my vote here. Several years ago, I wasn't in a great place emotionally, so I thought I would cheer myself up by watching a movie from my childhood. I picked this one, having apparently forgotten what a downer it is. It did NOT cheer me up, but it did open my eyes to how astutely the Peanuts cartoons examine just how heavy the world can seem to children. Though this movie does feel padded out at times with superfluous moments (including a sequence ripped entirely from The Great Pumpkin), the central story of Charlie Brown approaching popularity by winning a spelling bee and getting to represent his school in the Nationals has real heft. The complete absence of adults is always fascinating in this series. When Charlie Brown goes to New York City for the National Spelling Bee, he is not accompanied by his parents and has his own hotel room. In the film's most depressing sequence, Linus goes stumbling through the eerily empty streets of New York in search of his lost security blanket, nearly passing out from withdrawals. Like any great Peanuts feature, this one expresses its melancholy with childlike simplicity and honesty.
Last edited by Feego on Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#94 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 13, 2016 1:29 pm

And I'll put in another good word for Fun, the fantastic and disturbing exploration of a random murder committed by two teenage girls, with an especially remarkable performance by Alicia Witt. I wrote it up for the 90s List here and even ended up plunking down a ridic amount of money to buy the looooong OOP DVD (though it's available via back channels).

I won't plead by name for the "obvious" films I mentioned earlier, I will only reiterate that we would look like a joke to have a list that does not contain some of the currently MIA films. However, here are some other great and not entirely obvious films on my list for your last minute consideration: the Annunciation, La chinoise, the Color Wheel, Les cousins, Dick, the Fan (the German one), Hard Candy, I Remember Mama, Lili, Once More, My Darling, Pretty Poison (kind of the counter-example to Once More, My Darling!), the Sandlot (surprisingly few nostalgic pics made my list, though), Slumber Party Massacre (as the requisite slasher), Super 8, Susan Slept Here (in which underage marriage is somehow bolstered), Tall Story (the funniest college film, though I wish I had room for Animal House as well), the Tracey Fragments, the World of Henry Orient

Culling my list was a crushing activity-- my 51-100 is just as good as most top fifties.

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Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#95 Post by knives » Mon Jun 13, 2016 1:53 pm

Culling definitely was far too difficult for this with my last three cuts being entirely pragmatic though it sounds like pragmatism may fail me.

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swo17
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#96 Post by swo17 » Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:35 pm

I guess I should also do some last minute pointless plugs:

Where Is the Friend's Home?
One of the best examples of a film taking something that would normally only be consequential to a child and treating it with all the seriousness that he would in fact ascribe to it. That and so much more, but that's enough for this list.

Melody for a Street Organ
Russia hates its children but also all of its other residents.

Landscape in the Mist
All of Europe actually. You should really try to grow up somewhere else.

La Promesse
Nénette and Boni
Coming-of-age dramas wherein deadbeat kids are inspired to make something more of themselves.

The Illumination
That moment in college when it dawns on you that there will never be enough time to fulfill all of your potential, or even possibly any of it.

Celine and Julie Go Boating
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
I group these along with Du côté d'Orouët in the subgenre of French girls of a certain age acting adorably. Am I wrong to do so?

A Day with the Boys
A lovely little trifle available on the Criterion edition of George Washington, directed by Clu Gulager (Lee Marvin's partner in The Killers).

"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki
Whenever my daughter asks if she can have a pet I make her watch this.

Bambi
Boyhood with deer and no Oscar for Patricia Arquette.

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bottled spider
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 am

Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#97 Post by bottled spider » Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:24 pm

domino harvey wrote:Three lists have been submitted so far and two of the most obvious (and deserving) titles one would automatically think to be a shoo-in for the top spot are still voteless
Anne of Green Gables? I knew I was forgetting something! I can still edit my list!

But I make no apology for Night of the Hunter, omitted on the grounds that I detest it. Or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, for which I have the bullet proof excuse of never having watched it. The omission of Dazed and Confused was, I admit, an outright lapse in taste, judgment, and sanity.

(Is Anne of Green Gables eligible? I'm asking for a friend. Not me.)

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#98 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:32 pm

No, far more obvious than even those! (None of those made my list either!) And yes, Our Anne is 100% viable vote getter

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#99 Post by swo17 » Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:39 pm

I'm stumped. Is it Starlet and Detention?

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Films of Youth List Discussion + Suggestions (Genre Proj

#100 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:42 pm

I erased my clue but no, these are movies with an established and earned board history, not the crazed recommendations of a madman

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