Ever since its birth in the 80s with the great Brat Pack films such as The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and St Elmo’s Fire, this coming-of-age genre has gotten better and better with time. Their combinations of romance, comedy and drama have charmed audiences worldwide with some odd storylines that somehow seem to pull it off. Who would ever have thought that a story (Juno) written by an ex-stripper about a 16 year old girl who gets knocked up by her best friend on an old sofa and then decides to give the baby up for adoption could be one of the most endearingly funny and well-written movies I’ve ever seen?
Fair enough, at first sight a movie about the endeavours of a group of friends trying to lose their virginity may seem shallow and of ill-taste, but it means well and if it entertains people, so what? Plus not all of them are lacking in substance: 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern day remake of Taming of the Shrew with a twist in that it is the male character who accommodates himself for his female love interest. Then there’s Cruel Intentions which is based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses which has a brilliant ending with a brilliant song – Sarah Michelle Gellar’s nefarious deeds getting found out to the tune of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve is classic.
‘Bittersweet Symphony’ isn’t the only great song to grace the genre, as teen movies have some impressive soundtracks: that moment in She’s All That when Rachel Leigh Cook walks down the stairs to Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘Kiss Me’ is unforgettable.
And impressive is the word that comes to mind when one thinks of all the acting careers that have started off in teen movies- Reese Witherspoon, Chris Evans, Ellen Page – proving that it’s not a genre to write off so soon.
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