Michael Cera has done some movies that are kind in the vein the OP is talking about. Juno, Superbad, that one about somebody or other’s playlist, that video game/comic book thing…somebody vs. the world?
Those movies are good hearted, and fairly non-cynical, even if they’re tweaked to a 21st century sensibility.
True, but they’re also laden with ironic hipsterism, and self-conscious wiseass dialogue to boot.
It’s pretty old now, but would Dazed and Confused fit this genre?
Yeah, I don’t really buy the idea that those films are in the same category as the '80s kids movies.
There is far too much of the writers’ and directors’ own personal idea of wit and humor oozing through the films with Michael Cera, as well as Cera’s own extremely self-conscious and crafted persona.
Thank you. I love the anti-woosh.
I don’t agree. I just saw a movie just last night, Beastly, that seems to fit the bill (obviously there’s a bit of magic to start the premise, but it’s mostly set in the ‘real’ world). It was surprisingly non-hipster and sweet.
Very awesome.
Does it have to be about high school? Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, released in 2010, fits the OP, except it’s about middle school.
Maybe we could answer the question after we get a ruling on what “self-conscious hipsterism” is. Because I’m not sure how Michael Cera’s filmography doesn’t count as recent coming of age movies.
The deadpan delivery, the fact that he’s constantly throwing off witty one-liners every ten seconds, the fact that hardly anyone in real life acts like Michael Cera’s characters do, and the fact that all of his dialog sounds like “movie-talk” and never ever sounds like the way that real human beings talk to each other.
I feel like the way Daniel and his mother, for instance, in Karate Kid, talk to each other, is extremely naturalistic and believable. The genuine frustration and anxiety of a kid who is bullied and scorned comes through. In Michael Cera’s movies, it just seems like every line is a setup for a joke. That’s the other thing, Cera’s movies are more on the comedic side and the kind of '80s films that I mentioned in the OP are really more dramas with occasional bits of humor.
You forgot one other good point about Lucas:
Adventureland and Can’t Hardly Wait might fit.
Angus was more or less Lucas in the 90’s, so it didn’t die out entirely in the 80’s.
Although I’ve never seen a single episode of it, wasn’t Dawson’s Creek kind of like the type of movies you are talking about?
“Holes” was pretty good.
Sort of along those lines, I’m sort of sick of the whole, “Dorky/awkward kid” movie. Not that that character hasn’t always been around but at one point that kind of personality was something to overcome, not really revel in. It sort of seems like that’s being celebrated in our culture now which is starting to get old.
Actually, this might work. Holes is definitely positive and non-hipster. It’s fun, upbeat, and has a good ending. Hard to think of much wrong with it.
ding ding ding
Yes; as I said earlier,
Angus is a little more comedic than Lucas. But yes, it is a similar movie. Lucas is probably a little better done. There are some truly great scenes in it, like the choir practice where the camera pans through the mass of singers, lingering for a few moments on each of the principal characters: Lucas, Maggie, Cappy, Rina, and finally Alyse. I feel like another movie has done the same thing (a much more serious and adult movie) to emphasize the same point - that all the disparate characters have intense feelings about each other.