Teenage Anxiety is an extension of the adolescent years. They are waves of fear, anxiety and confusion. As puberty hits and certain physical, psychological, and emotional changes begin to trigger overwhelming thoughts and fears, anxiety becomes inevitable. Sometimes the feelings of anxiety can mix with insecurities, mental struggles, financial problems, the rigors of socialization and family problems. It may eventually fade away with the nostalgic feeling of once being young and confused, or do more damage than it needed to.
Accurately examining teen anxiety on screen is difficult. Romanticization can often be included in stories that result in the glorification of a time period that doesn't need it. Depicting growing pains as they are requires that the voices be honest and free from glamour. However, numerous classic examples show the pain of adolescence with heartfelt and heartbroken stories to really sink that bittersweet nostalgia. Here are 10 movies that smell like teen angst.
10 Better Days (2019)
- Tianin Xiron Entertainment
Better days is a Chinese film adaptation directed by Derek Tsang based on In his youth, in her beauty, a youth novel by Jiu Yuexi. When Chen Nian (played by Zhou Dongyu), an academically stressed high school student, who is also a victim of peer bullying, meets someone who stands up for her named Xiao Bei (played by Jackson Yee), the two begin a special bond. As time goes on, this bond helps them both beat what kicked them down in the first place.
The film is a direct depiction of severe academic pressure and intense school bullying common in contemporary China. It shows how social fears and newly developed insecurities can affect the mind of an already anxious teen and endlessly complicate mental issues. Better days has won multiple awards at various film festivals and has been praised for its depiction of teen care.
9 Pariah (2011)
Written and directed by Dee Rees and starring Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans and Aasha Davis, Pariah is an American drama film about the struggle of a 17-year-old girl. Adepero Oduye's protagonist Alike is an aspiring poet living in a homophobic and conservative environment. Her sexual identity as a lesbian is not well received by her parents and constantly clouds her journey to embrace herself as she is.
Family dynamics and discovering sexual identities are both essential components of adolescence. Pariah tells a coming-of-age story that weaves together the two complicated concepts as part of self-discovery and acceptance. His fear is embedded in inner emotional battles and prejudices about LGBTQ+ in the eyes of a minority teen. It tells the experience of a girl's life through a lens that offers a different subject, a different environment and a different culture.
8 I Killed My Mother (2009)
Xavier Dolan directorial debut, I killed my mother is a semi-autobiographical drama that studies the relationship between a mother (played by Anne Dorval) and her son Hubert (played by Dolan). 16-year-old Hubert grows increasingly disliked by his mother and her domineering personality. Her worldviews, rules, values and beliefs create a wall between Hubert's understanding of independence and his sexuality, eventually resulting in rebellious outbursts.
Intimate, one-on-one family relationships can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and a lack of tolerance. Dolan's depiction of an intense mother-son conflict enabled him to receive his first-ever international recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. Due to its intimate concept and vulnerable story, the dark tone of this coming-of-age story has no doubt resonated with many, highlighting the glue that bonds fear to family relationships.
7 Persepolis (2007)
Based on the autobiographical drama by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis was directed by both Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. Set during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the film focuses on the coming-of-age story of a young girl during that period. Iran's politically and sociologically changing landscape extends from Marjane's childhood to adulthood. With themes such as political activism, religious oppression, discrimination and resistance, Persepolis captures the reality in which Marjane comes of age.
Given the rarity of international films taking the spotlight through culture-specific storytelling, the success of Persepolis remains one of the unparalleled. Worrying, anxiety and confusion in teens are part of a universal phenomenon and can take different forms within different regions. Portraying the growing pains of a Middle Eastern teenage girl may vary by sociological background, but that same essence of fear is still there.
6 Thirteen (2003)
Catherine Hardwicke Thirteen was co-written with Nikki Reed, and stars Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel Wood and Reed. Drawing influences from Reed's own adolescence, the story centers on Tracy (Wood), a seventh-grade student, and her descent into substance abuse after befriending Evie (Reed). As Tracy continues down that road, she becomes more self-destructive, confused and reckless.
Socialization is a delicate issue to balance as a teen. Befriending the wrong type of person, being drawn into the wrong kind of crowd, and not being able to wake up from a deceptively "cool" lifestyle takes more than what a thirteen-year-old girl has. Teen anxiety doesn't always have to be an inner struggle. Sometimes it is closely associated with external sources, although it causes damage from within. Thirteen is a good example of that.
5 Lilya 4-ever (2002)
The 2002 Swedish-Danish crime drama Lilya 4-ever is written and directed by Lukas Moodysson and stars Oksana Akinshina and Artyom Bogucharsky. Following a teenage girl named Lilya (Akinshina) trying to fend for herself in a housing project in Russia, the film is essentially a survival story about coming of age. Once Lilya meets Volodya (Troitsky) and Andrei (played by Pavel Ponomaryov), her dreams are shattered in an exploitative and abusive setting.
The themes in it Lilya 4-ever are dark and cruel. Trafficking in sex workers is a harsh reality, no exploitative measures are taken. Surviving an environment as horrific as this as a teenage girl with abandonment issues and not a single family member in sight becomes a harrowing journey. Lilya 4-ever certainly gives a new, if heartbreakingly realistic, connotation to the term fear.
4 All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
All about Lily Chou-Chou is a Japanese drama written and directed by Shunji Iwai. The film is a look at fandom culture, digital anonymity, bullying, the power of music and the inevitable teen angst at the heart of it all. The story is a spiraling tale of what lies behind a teenager's anxiety, with high school students in love with the pop star Lily Chou-Chou and her music.
Japan's problem with bullying is cited as one of the main points in the film, among other deeply disturbing ones, and serves as the impetus for what follows. All about Lily Chou-Chou looks at the painful realities teens sometimes have to endure and analyzes the health of the kind of comfort they seek in digital communities. It's a visually stunning study of teen alienation.
3 Donnie Darko (2001)
Richard Kelly's psychological thriller is a combination of coming-of-age and science fiction. Donnie Darko notorious stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, James Duval and Seth Rogen, and is set in October 1988. Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) is an emotionally struggling teenager who begins seeing a strange mysterious rabbit figure after experimenting with sleepwalking.
The confusion you experience as a teenager can also lead to existential questions with themes of life, death and the meaning of it all. Being swept up in such existentialist thoughts and ultimately going through a crisis can create a disturbing environment. Donnie Darko's depiction of the bleak route this can take combines elements of deteriorating sanity and illusions. The sci-fi qualities add a more experimental note to the dark story.
2 The Doom Generation (1995)
Gregg Araki's second episode Teen Apocalypse trilogy, The Doom Generation, is about a young trio (a troubled couple named Amy and Jordan, and the drifter they picked up named Xavier). The convenience store where the trio's paths cross is also a place of murder and Kicks begins a violent and disillusioned journey.
from Araki The Doom Generation is relatively more nihilistic with its depiction of teenage carelessness. Reckless instincts, rebellious desires and surreal desires drive the film, but that typical fear is always there. The awareness of what lies beneath that cynical atmosphere even heightens the emotional impact of such behavior. It all boils down to the issues of adolescence and the adrenaline rush.
1 Rebels of the Neon God (1992)
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang, Rebels of the Neon God is a Taiwanese drama starring Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung and Jen Chang-bin. The film revolves around the lives of three young people as they roam the city of Taipei: a frustrated student gradually becomes involved in petty crime and a couple struggling to understand the meaning of life in the city they live in.
The minimalist and slow nature of Rebels of the Neon God helps distinguish the atmospheric quality from other movies with coming of age storylines and angst. In fact, the film is more focused on combining the value of the city with the consequences of youth. The cultures in which one grows up function alongside the environmental state of which they are part. Rebels of the Neon God emphasized the meaning of city life, the norms that come with it and the will to embrace it.
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