Teen flicks Kick-Ass and She’s Out of My League have been released in Aussie cinemas, so it is only appropriate that News Hit takes a look at some of the best films about the impact of adolescence and formative years over the past 20 years.

An Angel at My Table
Jane Campion’s Bright Star (about poet John Keats) received glowing notices last year, so it is appropriate to look back at Campion’s first major film, An Angel at My Table, the biopic of Janet Frame, the New Zealand poet, playwright and author. In contrast to Campion’s later work (which became more self-consciously artful after the Oscar bonanza of The Piano), An Angel at My Table is a spare and unpretentious look at her subject matter. Told in three parts (Frame in her childhood, her misdiagnosed schizophrenia and her travelogue across Europe), the film unfolds matter-of-factly. To Campion’s credit, there is no grandstanding at her various tragedies (her misdiagnosis led to on-and-off stints in mental hospitals and two siblings were taken young), but she deploys a subtle, beautifully novelistic approach to Frame’s life and writing, sensitively valuing Frame’s voice and emotional strength.

Looking for Alibrandi
Looking for Alibrandi centres on the second generation migrant Jose Alibrandi as struggles with the HSC, grief, an unresolved relationship with her father. Whilst she chases the affections of the charming and winning WASP John Barton (Matthew Newton), the “bad boy” Jacob Coote (Kick Gurry) chases her. Whilst something like Twilight was all surface emotions and characterisation, this is a believable and very poignant study of the things that just matter for teenagers- crushes, High School studies, the formal, driving lessons and family disputes. Television Director Kate Woods’ production values are tops, as are the terrific performances from a superb cast, especially Pia Miranda as the bright and complex Josephine who finds resilience and maturity against remarkable setbacks.

Half Nelson
Clerks’ Kevin Smith called Half Nelson one of the best films of the decade, and, as the independent film world gradually moves away from truthful human experience, this brave and intelligent picture examines its characters with a bracing honesty and compassion. Thoughtful student Drey (the superb Shakeera Epps) finds her high school teacher Dan (Ryan Gosling) getting high in the school bathroom. Drey is struggling at home and school; the brother she adores is sent to jail for selling drugs whilst the dealer responsible is pushing her to take up her sibling’s place. Gosling is electric as the righteous, but naïve ultra-liberal whilst the charismatic Mackie matches him as the pragmatic drug dealer. The film’s strength is that both men seem to think of themselves as the “good guy”- the teacher does not want Drey to follow her brother into a cycle of crime whilst the dealer sees Dan as the spiritless “basehead” who could bring Drey down to his level.

Adventureland
Adventureland takes the hokiest of screen clichés (you know, the one about that summer where “everything changed”) and infuses it with honesty and warmth. In 1987, arts student James (Jesse Eisenberg, the thinking man’s Michael Cera) is all set for Europe until his father is demoted and his parents can no longer pay for his trip. Disenchanted, James accepts a summer job at the crappy theme park, Adventureland, where he shoots the shit with the erudite Joel (Freaks and Geeks’ Martin Starr) and develops a serious crush on the beautiful and wise Em (Kristen Stewart). Although very funny, the film’s anguish and truthfulness will resonate with anyone who is (or was) young as the pretentious yet sweet James wrestles with the point of his life where maturity and responsibility are thrust upon him and learns to recognise other people’s pain and emotional baggage.

Elephant
Few films express the disconnection of the high school experience as honestly as Elephant. It may deal with very familiar material (cheerleaders, quarterbacks, the geeks, the goths), but its refreshingly dispassionate approach gives shattering insight into young people and their experiences: over the course of one day, some are mundane, others are very much not so. Like Paul Greengrass’ stunning United 93, Van Sant’s film refuses to judge the story’s eventual massacre. But the film’s absolute detailing of these young people is so aware and sensitive to the emotions of young people that it left me in no doubt of the film’s greatness; like Campion, Van Sant understands the simple emotional power of observation.

Andrew Moraitis