JUNE 16 ― Like any other genre, the coming of age film also has a lot of variations... even sub-genres.
Some come in the form of a serious drama, some go all out in the direction of comedy, while others straddle the line between the two.
It's a genre with concerns that are so universal that it remains one of the most frequently told stories of all, that of the growing pains of a teenager, a little kid or a young adult.
From world cinema classics like the Apu Trilogy to The 400 Blows to mainstream favourites like Sixteen Candles to 10 Things I Hate About You and relatively recent standouts like The Edge Of Seventeen and The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, the coming of age movie, if done right, will always have a special place in the hearts of audiences everywhere.
Because it's such a well-worn genre, with well-established and much beloved rules and genre conventions, it's pretty hard to come across something new and refreshing in this day and age of easy access to almost any movie our hearts may desire.
But in the space of just a few months, the mainstream coming of age teen movie has experienced something totally and radically new.
First came Love, Simon, a teen movie that proudly wears every single one of the genre's clichés on its sleeve but with one absolutely huge difference ― instead of telling the story of how a boy meets girl and gets together with the girl, it's a story of boy meets boy and how that boy gets together with the other boy. Yes, you read that right, it's a mainstream teen movie with a gay lead character.
Gay or queer teen movies, of course, are nothing new. I've loved plenty of those since the heyday of queer cinema in the 90s, from Beautiful Thing to G.B.F to Pariah to one of my all time faves, But I'm A Cheerleader, but to finally see a gay character take centre stage in a mainstream teen movie is really something else, even if I'm not gay myself.
But to then encounter another mainstream teen movie just a few months afterwards, also about the coming of age (and the coming out) of a gay lead character just feels like a watershed moment in the history of cinema. Let's see how these two stack up.
Love, Simon
If the lead character in this movie was straight, this would be nothing more than a solid but unspectacular entry into the high school teen movie genre.
Everything you've come to expect from such a movie is here ― the social cliques, the growing up rites of passage, the pining for true love, the female best friend, the endless music cues, the break-up.
But just by flipping it around and not making it a heterosexual love story, an extra layer of drama comes up and actually raises the stakes even higher than your normal teen movie ― the whole business involving coming out, and a person's right to come out on their own terms.
It's a pity I couldn't watch this in the cinema here because I'd love to experience the collective feeling of having a weight lifted off of our shoulders regarding this whole issue just by seeing a story like this being told in a mainstream movie that's actually aimed at teenagers.
Yes, it may be a fantasy (like most high school teen movies are) and it's cliched as hell, but it's that long overdue (and non-judgmental) inclusiveness that makes this movie one to remember.
Alex Strangelove
If Love, Simon was the mainstream, wide-release version of the gay teen movie (which should make it more or less a Clueless or 10 Things I Hate About You), then the totally unexpected surprise that is Alex Strangelove is its more introspective sibling, a Sixteen Candles or Say Anything in the wider scheme of things.
Released on Netflix, which should also guarantee a wide reach to its targeted teen audience, the film tells almost the same story as Love, Simon ― there's again the social cliques, the growing up rites of passage, the pining for true love, the female best friend (who then becomes a girlfriend), the endless music cues and the break-up.
The only difference here is that there's a love triangle involved, which makes the film trickier emotionally, and this is probably why I liked this film better.
There are more opportunities to give more shading to the characters, and the emotional consequences to everyone seems a bit more true to real life, and there's just a bit more pain here than the mostly very sunny Love, Simon.
In short, this feels more like Cameron Crowe and John Hughes than your standard raunchy teen movie, and anyone who knows their teen movie will know that this is never a bad thing.
So that's two mainstream breakthroughs in just about three months then. Will there be more?
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
