Screenshot: Now and Then/New Line Cinema
Not entirely unlike Inside Out a few years back, the new Pixar film Turning Red stars a character confronting her own adolescence and the physical and emotional horrors of puberty. Without going into depressing detail, it has generated controversy for a number of truly dumb reasons.
Movies have often fallen down when it comes to exploring adolescent angst—for every shmaltzy story about kids who seem to breeze through puberty without tackling sex beyond, at most, a gauzy first kiss, there is an exploitative parable meant to serve as a dire warning about the horrible dangers of the teenage years. The family-friendly Turning Red isn’t intended as either, and does an impressive job of demystifying (just a bit) a confusing time via its metaphor of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who, thanks to a hereditary curse, turns into a giant red panda at the onset of strong emotions.
If you are looking for more films that truly get that why it often sucks to be a teenager, consider the following. They vary in tone and intended audiences, but they all treat the tumult of adolescence—and their adolescent characters—with respect.
