More often than not, one of the greatest complications in one’s young adult life can be a rollercoaster relationship with a parent. Parents serve as caregivers, protectors, and points of reason. However, sometimes that isn’t always the case. Movies can often help give insight to complicated parent-child relationships, depicting familial situations that are sometimes more relatable than one might like to admit.
Often, a film that focuses on a complicated parent-child relationship will showcase the growth or lack thereof over a period of time. Sometimes, the child character will be presented with resolution, or an explanation. Other times, the result is the child breaking away and claiming autonomy of themselves. Regardless of the outcome, these films are important to include in viewing rotation.
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5 The Spectacular Now
21 Laps Entertainment
The Spectacular Now is a 2010s coming of age film that focuses on Sutter, a high school senior played by Miles Teller, who is presumably one of the nicest guys in school. He meets Aimee, played by Shailene Woodley, and the two begin dating. Sutter is always talking about his father and presenting him as a hero and overall the best guy. He is often presenting his mother as the problem, although he cares for her very much. Sutter’s sister urges him to remember their father differently, but Sutter builds him up to a legendary man. This is often just how Sutter copes, and the way he convinces himself that his father must have had to be doing something pretty important if he had been so absent for so long. Sutter and Aimee make a drive to visit his father, Tommy, who is played by Kyle Chandler. Tommy buys the underage teens a beer and Sutter learns the truth, and must face who his father truly is.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
4 Carrie
MGM
Carrie, one of the great horror films of the 70s, focuses on the horrors of being a teenage girl, and the complications that come with possessing telekinetic powers. Carrie White, famously portrayed by Sissy Spacek, is a constant target at her high school, but it is on the day that she begins her menstrual cycle that her life at home becomes that much more deranged. Carrie’s mother Margaret, portrayed by Piper Laurie, is a devout Christian who believes that the beginning of her daughter’s menstrual cycle marks a curse. After being invited to the Senior prom by a fellow classmate, Carrie struggles to persuade her mother to let her go, and resorts to using her telekinetic powers against her mother’s will. Margaret warns Carrie that going to the dance is a great mistake, but Carrie goes anyway, and the infamous scene of her being soaked in pig’s blood ensues. Carrie offers a dramatic portrayal of a strained mother-daughter relationship. Even though Carrie and her mother are seemingly always at odds, Carrie seeks comfort from her mother.
3 Big Fish
Columbia Pictures
Tim Burton’s Big Fish toes the line between fantasy and drama. After learning of his father’s decline in health, Will Bloom, played by Billy Crudup, returns home to be with him while he passes. Edward Bloom, portrayed in his old age by Albert Finney, is a master storyteller, and attempts to tell his son’s wife grand stories of his life. Will becomes frustrated and insists that his father never truly told him the truth, and resents him for constantly being away on business. Will is a realist while Edward lives in a fantasy world. The film flashes back to Edward when he was much younger, during which he is portrayed by Ewan McGregor, and allows his fantastical stories to come to life. Behind the fantasy and bedtime like tales, is a story of a strained relationship and lack of trust between a father and his son. Will desperately wishes his father would tell him something true before he dies, and Edward insists that he always had. It isn’t until Edward passes that Will sees the people from Edward’s story at his funeral and learns that all of his father’s stories, exaggerated as they may have been, were absolutely true. Big Fish is a film that not only showcases healing from hurt, but is sure to deliver a tear-jerker ending.
2 Lady Bird
A24
Lady Bird, the 2017 coming of age drama about a young girl navigating the ruthless roads of her teen years, struggles to find a common ground with herself and her mother. Christine McPherson, played by Saoirse Ronan, begins to refer herself as “Lady Bird,” denouncing the name given to her by her mother. This is just one of the many ways that Lady Bird rejects all the characteristics that she and her mother share. Marion, played by Laurie Metcalf, works as a nurse and is the lone provider for the McPherson family. In the midst of it all, the two struggle to communicate with each other because they are both very strong-willed and stubborn. Marion also has issues expressing her emotions in general, though most significantly to her daughter. By the end of the film, the two develop a better understanding with one another. Lady Bird is a great example of two people who wish to communicate with one another but just can’t, and allow their inner complications to get the better of them.
1 Boyhood
Richard Linklater
Director, Richard Linklater spent 12 years filming 2014’s Boyhood, per NPR, which features the same cast throughout the film. The coming of age drama features Mason, played by Ellar Coltrane, whom the viewer follows over the course of the film. Essentially, Boyhood offers an insight that many films don’t dare to touch and allows audiences to experience the film through a growing child’s perspective. Birthday celebrations, road trips, and family functions are just a few of the milestones that pave the way to making Boyhood one of the most interactive coming of age films in all of cinema. In the almost three-hour run time, audiences are given the opportunity to experience all of Mason’s firsts, as well as the up and downs he faces with his mother and father. Boyhood is easily one of the most influential films of the last decade when it comes to stories about teenagers bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood. It offers insight, perspective, and overall relatable experience to all who watch it.
