Well, in addition to films that did make my list, here’s some brief appeals to others to list the movies that didn’t make my list, but are still worthy inclusions I’d love to see represented:
A Far Off Place (Reese Witherspoon versus the Australian outback in the most violent Disney movie you’ll ever see— assuming any of you jerks ever bother
to see this),
Adieu Phillipine (Rozier’s
other great look at French youth),
Antoine and Colette (the best of the Doinel films by a wide margin),
Billy Liar (Fantasy as both survival mechanism and advancement hinderance),
Daddy Longlegs (Only Astaire could make this character not a creep),
Down in the Valley (Evan Rachel Wood is spot-on as the rebellious teen who starts a romance with mysterious cowboy Edward Norton),
Freeway (Reese Witherspoon is white trash perfection),
George Washington (Nothing DGG’s done since matches his first pass at this kind of thing),
Gidget (Surprisingly straight-faced affair for a movie about a surfer girl crushing on a guy named Moondoggie),
God Help the Girl (A flawed modern musical, but one that captures a period of twee indiehood near and dear to my own youth),
Innocence (Youth as what the fuck is going on),
It Follows (teenage sexual fears physically manifested),
Kids (Sure, a lot of it is empty bombast and “shock”, but it’s only too appropriate for the subject matter),
the Last Picture Show (Texas teens take their time toiling through trials + tribulations),
Little Darlings (the best of the sincere camp-set teen movies),
Lord Love a Duck (Proof that one memorable scene can make an entire film worth recommending),
Lucas (sweet nerd Corey Haim falls for Kerri Green from
the Goonies and their touching friendship defies expectations set by other, far inferior teen films from this decade. One of the hardest cuts to make from the list),
Martha Marcy May Marlene (What is broken may never be fixed),
Masculin Feminin (the first round of the Cola Wars),
Mean Girls (Popular teen fare more than worthy of its omnipresence),
Mildred Pierce (Curtiz’ original, though both are great— but the original has Ann Blyth as the most odious teenager in motion picture history),
Mouchette (A depressing Bresson film?! Why I never!),
Nada Surf “Popular” (music video) (Being attractive is the most important thing there is),
National Lampoon’s Animal House (cheerfully vulgar and influential comedy that still holds up),
O (the superior Shakespeare update),
Paper Towns (In which you don’t actually want the object of your affection),
Rebecca (A better film than most of those that made my top fifty, but not necessarily when it comes to youth. Joan Fontaine’s performance is still a thing of wonder, though),
Scott Pilgrim vs the World (There’s just too few spots in a top fifty),
Shadow of a Doubt (How sad it is when our childhood idols fall),
the Social Network (As Charlie Chaplin is told in
the Cat’s Meow, being nice is for bellboys),
the Spectacular Now (A rare sympathetic asshole male teen),
Spring Breakers (Bro culture as seen from outside. No resemblance to the reality of its subject and yet that is it’s greatest selling point),
the Squid and the Whale (Cringe-fest of teenage memories we’d all want wiped from our minds),
13 Going on 30 (Jennifer Garner does
Big one better [bigger?]),
WarGames (Ally Sheedy's lament in the face of nuclear destruction about never having learned to swim says more about the end of the world than any other film ever has),
Where the Boys Are (Hollywood inching toward cultural relevancy at the dawn of the sixties),
White God (Too violent for dog lovers, too mawkish for the art house scene, this is a film for no one— no one but you, reading this),
the Window (the nightmare of every child [looking forward to zedz’ memo that everyone believed
him as a child]),
Winter’s Bone (Remember when Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t Jennifer Lawrence?),
Wristcutters: A Love Story (turns out suicide isn’t the answer),
Wuthering Heights (2011) (the most radical and best literary adaptation in recent memory)