Love, Simon, is a feel-good film about the ups and downs of falling in love for the first time and learning to be true to yourself.

From the producers of The Fault In Our Stars, Love, Simon stars up-and-coming actor Nick Robinson and Australia’s own Katherine Langford. The title character Simon Spier is a 17-year-old high school student who hasn’t yet told his family and friends that he’s gay. In some ways, it’s a very specific struggle: to break free of the hetero-normative mold.

But in the grander scheme of things, Simon Spier’s journey is shared by all characters on the brink of adulthood… and it offers up  fun moments mixed in with a very important message.

“Announcing who you are to the world is pretty terrifying,” Simon says. “What if the world doesn’t like you?” Growing up means stepping out of the familiar nursery of childhood and into the unknown. It’s terrifying, confusing, even disappointing sometimes. But the thrill of new experiences, the power that comes from knowing yourself, make the knocks and bruises along the way worthwhile.

The Coming-Of-Age Genre

It joins a much-beloved list of coming-of-age films and television shows, a genre characterised by touching family drama, life-defining friendships and – more often than not – an amazing soundtrack, with tunes that capture a time and place just perfectly. If you’re a kid today, you will see yourself on screen. If you’re an adult, you’ll feel a deep nostalgic tug towards a uniquely difficult, uniquely lovely moment of life.

There’s a naïve intensity to youth that fades with age and experience, and watching coming-of-age films brings us back to it for a second. They drag us back to the passion, angst, promise and awkwardness of being young; all the mad, stupid intensity of those in-between years. Sometimes they’re dark, but so is life. Things are simpler when you’re young. These stories make us want to be kids again, and do it all for the first time.

Growing Up Down Under

Australia has its own canon of coming-of-age films, which are not just about growing up but about growing up in a specific place; how where you live shapes who you are and who you will become.

Small town life plays a big part in John Duigan’s lost classic The Year My Voice Broke (1987) while a remote boarding school, featuring a young Nicole Kidman, sets the scene for teen misadventure in Flirting (1991).

The ‘molls’ in Puberty Blues (1981) have to push back against casual beachside sexism to find their place in the world, while the pugnacious heroine in Looking for Alibrandi (2000) has to carve her identity from two clashing influences, her migrant Italian community and Sydney’s elite private school network.

The Golden Era Of Teen Films

The 1980s was the golden era of coming-of-age films, with John Hughes’ suburban rebels leading the charge. Hughes’ films captured so perfectly the earnestness of youth; the desire to resist the dead sleep of adulthood; to fight for something and have fun doing it; above all, to be sincere.

Pretty In Pink (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and Sixteen Candles (1984) are about being loved for who you really are, no matter how poor, unpopular or aesthetically androgynous. In The Breakfast Club (1985), an odd assortment of teen stereotypes realises that they can’t play by society’s rules, or fit into predetermined boxes if they want to be truly happy.

But Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) is Hughes’ real coming-of-age triumph, because the film’s comedy hijinks mask a fairly depressing resignation about growing up. The whole point of the film’s famous ‘Life moves pretty fast’ speech is that youth is fleeting, it will all be over soon, and adult life won’t be nearly as much fun.

The ‘80s gave us a mountain of other coming-of-age classics, including Stand By Me (1986), Dirty Dancing (1987), The Goonies (1985), The Lost Boys (1987) and criminally underrated The Karate Kid (1984). On opposite ends of the spectrum, two films stand out for their distinctive points of view. Dead Poet’s Society (1989) is the voice inside every burgeoning adult telling them to want more and to be more than the world expects of them. Heathers (1988) is that voice inside every young person telling them to burn everything to the ground.

Teens On TV

Television has given us the ability to watch characters mature slowly, over time, as they do in real life. Ironically, of the best examples of coming-of-age television was cut criminally short. Nineteen episodes was way too little of My So-Called Life (1994-1995), which remains one of the most painful, relatable representations of a girl growing up on the small screen. Thankfully Skins (2007-1013) was given a massive run, with seven whole seasons of sex, friendship and anarchy to enjoy, with a refreshingly non-judgemental view of the stuff young adults get up to.

Teens who like their drama a little more high-gloss are watching Riverdale (from the same director as Love, Simon) right now, while in the past they were heartily addicted to Gossip Girl (2007-2012), The O.C. (2003-2007) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000).

When it comes to the lighter side of growing pains, The In-Betweeners (2008-2010) is a hands-down winner. It is a truly hilarious view of hyper-horny young men on the brink and educational for all the wrong reasons. Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000) is the best of the cult classics, which despite being set in the seventies feels like a true depiction of everyone’s awkward youth, though Degrassi Junior High (1987-1989) is a close second; peak awkwardness, Canadian-style.

From Australia, exploring intersectional youth, diversity and working-class disadvantage before anyone was getting brownie points to do so, Heartbreak High (1994-1999) is the pick of the bunch. It’s about the nineties, kind of, but it’s about all of us as kids, just trying to figure stuff out.

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(Lead image: Love, Simon/20th Century Fox)

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Love, Simon is in cinemas on March 29 – don’t miss it!