Head back to school with these unexpected coming-of-age films

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OKLAHOMA CITY – To think of “teen movies” or “coming-of-age” tales, it’s easy to conjure moral-heavy melodramas or raunchy, often openly offensive sex comedies.

But while all of those can be great and more than a little formative when you’re still young enough to be naïve of the world, there are a lot of other, more creative ways to capture the inherent strangeness, confusion, and fear of the teenage experience.

Too many teen-focused movies are helmed by filmmakers so deep into adulthood that they either come across as after-school specials or immature try-hards, more concerned with what the adult mind thinks an adolescent audience wants than with remembering the real feelings of actually being young.

The truth is, every teen feels like a lone, sacrificial world-saver displaced in time, or that they and their friends are an outcast band of misunderstood superheroes, or worst of all, that they’re an unfairly imprisoned adult being purposefully lied to and cut off from the real world.

It’s not all just life lessons and hormones.

So instead of the usual kid-friendly drama fare or bawdy comedies, here’s a few films playing around OKC this month that capture some of the world-ending weirdness, kung-fu thrills, and psychological horrors of late adolescence, all just in time for the Back-to-School season.

‘Donnie Darko’ – Oklahoma Film Exchange – August 15th 

There was a time in my life where I counted 2001’s “Donnie Darko” as my favorite film in the world.

It had everything I’d ever wanted out of a movie at the time: darkness, mystery, creative and novel approaches to time travel, an untouchable goth-rock soundtrack, and a creepy six-foot bunny-man spouting existentialism and doom.

But more importantly, it had as its hero an intelligent and defiant teenage loner tasked with saving the entire universe. You know, every teenager’s dream.

Here was the story of a confused teen in religious Middle-America awoken in the middle of the night and pulled away from his house to be told by a man in a monster-faced rabbit costume that the world will end in 28 days. I was on board just from the premise alone.

The truth is that I was exactly the right age when I discovered “Donnie Darko,” right around the same age as Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Donnie,” in fact.

In hindsight, what I was responding to so deeply wasn’t really the wild and mysterious time travel concepts or the horror elements or the relentlessly dark atmosphere or the overall oddness. It was first-time writer/director Richard Kelly’s uncommon honesty and emotional rawness about the teenage experience and the end of childhood.

A lot has been said about whether or not it holds up as an adult, and that’s a debate everyone can have for themselves, but the truth is that it probably shouldn’t. 

It’s about the confusion and fear of childhood and the transition into something more resolved and focused. It feels like being a teenager again, and that means that it probably should feel immature and goofy, like looking back at your old yearbook photos.

Still, very few films have ever so accurately captured the feeling of the world ending as you reach adulthood. And in Donnie’s case, it’s not just about that impending doom, but ultimately about allowing your world to end and simplifying your motivations down to the simpler questions of love and fear.

And isn’t that what adulthood is all about?

For showtimes and more, including the month-long mission of the Oklahoma Film Exchange and links to their fundraising campaign to save the Film Row theatre, visit oklahomafilmexchange.com.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” 35th anniversary – Opens wide August 15th 

Okay, so being a teenager wasn’t all about darkness and chaos and the apocalypse, right?

It was also about you and your friends and that undying “us against the world” attitude. And of course, lots and lots of pizza.

For generations, that mentality has been exemplified no better than by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, arbiters of all things extreme and radical and still the anthropomorphic embodiment of fun.

For all the comic books, cartoons, movie sequels, video games, and more, the offering from across the entire franchise that’s held up the best is (perhaps surprisingly) the original 1990 live-action film, with its bulky rubber turtle costumes, squealing rock guitar score, and awesome practical effects and puppetry.

But even for all the kung-fu action and bantering comedy, the 1990 original holds up because of its genuine heart and its remarkably honest exploration of sibling dynamics, parental hardships, and the eternal coming-of-age issues of stepping out into a world that understands you even less than you understand it.

It’s still overwhelmingly fun, funny, rousing, and totally cool, and because of the practical effects and costumes, it still looks surprisingly good for its age.

Plus, you get a young Sam Rockwell before he grew into one of the most watchable actors of the modern era.

The 35th anniversary presentation of 1990’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” hits theaters across the OKC metro August 15th through 20th.

‘Dogtooth’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – August 28th through 30th 

Way on the other side of the spectrum is a film that’s decidedly not fun and definitely not for children, though it is a pretty perfect encapsulation of the confused, naïve teenage experience and the creeping feeling of being unfairly trapped inside your parents’ world.

In 2009’s “Dogtooth,” that feeling becomes explicit, as a pair of parents keep their children strictly inside their own walled-off house, never allowing them to experience or engage with the outside world and raising them to believe only the lies and absurdities that they’ve been taught.

In fact, the “children” aren’t actually children at all. They’re all adults, but have never been allowed to have an adult experience or to make their own observations about the outside world. They’re treated, schooled, protected, and even dressed like children, regardless of their age.

That is until their inevitable and uncomfortably adult urges force the father to bring home a woman for the son, a decision that expectedly spirals out of control and upends all of their lives and lies.

It’s every teenager’s worst fear, the possibility that your parents won’t ever let you go or grow up and that everything they’ve ever taught you and trained you to fear about the world is actually fake.

It was also the international breakout for Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos of “Poor Things” and “The Favourite” fame, and if you thought those movies were weird and uncomfortable, well, you’re right. But so is this one.

For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit okcmoa.com.

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Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

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