I watched Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me for the first time last night. I’ve wanted to see it for quite some time, but the opportunity had never presented itself. It lived up to the hype, although I gotta say those kids cried a lot considering they were twelve. I’ll give them a pass though what with the dead brother and abusive/negligent parents and all. It was the perfect coming of age story and I love me some coming of age stories---The Dead Poet’s Society, The 400 Blows, American Graffiti the list goes on. Once I started thinking about this particular genre I couldn’t help but notice a trend---there’s seems to be a lot of testosterone in these movies.
Let’s face it, guys have all the cool coming-of-age movies. Judy Blume’s got us covered in the literature department and Buffy and Clare Danes have the corner market on television, but film? Pretty much a wasteland. Sure there are a few that come to mind, the original My Girl for instance. No denying the film has a good grasp on the whole growing up as a girl thing, but I’ve never heard any critic fawn over it the way they laud Stand By Me.
Then you’ve got movies like Now and Then (Stand by Me with girls and extraneous adults!), 13 Going on 30 (Big as Chick Flick), and Mona Lisa Smile (think really crappy Dead Poet’s Society) that try to cut and paste girls into the boy classics. There’s also the I’m pregnant so I better grow up now sub genre featuring Saved! and Juno.
I’m not saying that these movies aren’t good (well some of them aren’t---I’m looking at you Mona Lisa), but can we honestly say that any of them have captured the essence of transitioning into womanhood the same way Stand By Me captured the last gasp of boyhood?
Maybe the experience is inherently different. Boys have long been sent on journeys to mark their passing into adulthood and journeys are interesting things to watch. We like quests and heroes. When girls come of age we get parties and periods. That’s not quite as cinematic. Oh God, with that reasoning our definitive coming of age tale would be Sixteen Candles.
If any film has come close to capturing the experience honestly I would have to say it is Juno, but it’s too early to declare it the "definitive coming of age movie for girls". Maybe it just feels that way because Juno’s tiny and snarky and not even a little pink, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Juno’s going to feel dated real fast. Those witty pop culture references have a shelf life, whereas films like Poet’s and Stand by Me feel timeless.
Then again maybe we don’t need our own film. Just because the films feature boys doesn’t mean we ladies can’t relate. Maybe these films only seem to capture the experience of growing up guy. There’s an air of Hollywood romanticism around them that makes me wonder. Regardless, they’re pretty awesome. Still it would be nice to have a girl movie to point to and say, “yeah man that’s exactly what it was like.” I wonder if Judy Blume’s up for writing a screenplay?
Let’s face it, guys have all the cool coming-of-age movies. Judy Blume’s got us covered in the literature department and Buffy and Clare Danes have the corner market on television, but film? Pretty much a wasteland. Sure there are a few that come to mind, the original My Girl for instance. No denying the film has a good grasp on the whole growing up as a girl thing, but I’ve never heard any critic fawn over it the way they laud Stand By Me.
Then you’ve got movies like Now and Then (Stand by Me with girls and extraneous adults!), 13 Going on 30 (Big as Chick Flick), and Mona Lisa Smile (think really crappy Dead Poet’s Society) that try to cut and paste girls into the boy classics. There’s also the I’m pregnant so I better grow up now sub genre featuring Saved! and Juno.
I’m not saying that these movies aren’t good (well some of them aren’t---I’m looking at you Mona Lisa), but can we honestly say that any of them have captured the essence of transitioning into womanhood the same way Stand By Me captured the last gasp of boyhood?
Maybe the experience is inherently different. Boys have long been sent on journeys to mark their passing into adulthood and journeys are interesting things to watch. We like quests and heroes. When girls come of age we get parties and periods. That’s not quite as cinematic. Oh God, with that reasoning our definitive coming of age tale would be Sixteen Candles.
If any film has come close to capturing the experience honestly I would have to say it is Juno, but it’s too early to declare it the "definitive coming of age movie for girls". Maybe it just feels that way because Juno’s tiny and snarky and not even a little pink, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Juno’s going to feel dated real fast. Those witty pop culture references have a shelf life, whereas films like Poet’s and Stand by Me feel timeless.
Then again maybe we don’t need our own film. Just because the films feature boys doesn’t mean we ladies can’t relate. Maybe these films only seem to capture the experience of growing up guy. There’s an air of Hollywood romanticism around them that makes me wonder. Regardless, they’re pretty awesome. Still it would be nice to have a girl movie to point to and say, “yeah man that’s exactly what it was like.” I wonder if Judy Blume’s up for writing a screenplay?
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