The Most Realistic Movies About Being A Teenager, Ranked By How Relatable They Are

What It's About: Five disparate high school students are forced to attend Saturday detention together. The stern vice principal keeps an eye on them. During a day stuck together in the library, the kids let down their guard, finding they have a lot in common despite running in very different social circles. 

What It Gets Right About Teens: The whole concept of The Breakfast Club is whether it's possible to be friends with someone outside your clique. These characters have been forced into specific boxes, then told it's only okay to mingle within those boxes. Writer/director John Hughes peels away the labels, allowing the teenagers - and, by extension, the viewer - to see that teens of all stripes deal with the same issues, from insecurity to popularity fears to frustration with parents. Even though adolescence is a time of segregating into various tribes, the members of those tribes still share lots of emotions and struggles. 

The Most Relatable Scene: The gang sits together on the second floor of the library, and each member explains what they did to earn detention. Their stories have to do with meeting the expectations of their parents, trying to fit in with their peers, and fulfilling the social roles assigned to them. Anyone who was ever an adolescent will identify with at least one of the characters. 

What It's About: It's the last day of school for students in Austin, Texas. Now free of academia for the summer, they spend the day hanging out, getting drunk and high, and pursuing crushes. Senior Fred O'Bannion (Ben Affleck) hazes the incoming freshman class, while twentysomething David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) continues to demonstrate an inability to move on, choosing to linger around the high schoolers. 

What It Gets Right About Teens: Rarely has the exhilaration of school's end been depicted so vibrantly onscreen. The movie captures that feeling when you've got the whole summer ahead of you to chill with your friends. Dazed and Confused also accurately captures the diversity of teenagers. Its characters are not all cut from the same cloth. They're a disparate group, unified by the promise of an entire summer that lies ahead.

The Most Relatable Scene: A keg party takes place in a field. There's plenty of drinking, along with a fight and a burgeoning romance. The sequence captures the energy of teenage gatherings where friends' interpersonal dramas play out amid overall reverie. 

What It's About: High school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) thinks her life couldn't get any more awkward than it already is. She discovers that's not the case when her older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). Suddenly, the girls' friendship becomes tested in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. Fortunately, she's got a teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), who's willing to dispense some advice, whether she likes his point of view or not. 

What It Gets Right About Teens: The Edge of Seventeen humorously and insightfully explores the changing dynamic of friendship during the teenage years. Someone can be your best friend one moment, then your worst adversary the next. As everyone grows up and evolves, you sometimes find yourself drifting away from the people you thought you couldn't live without. The movie similarly understands that rudderless feeling adolescents can have when they do find themselves on the outs with friends. 

The Most Relatable Scene: Nadine barges in on Mr. Bruner's lunch break, claiming her life is miserable and making a not-so-compelling argument that she's going to take her own life. She's in that classic melodramatic adolescent state where the whole world feels irreparably broken. As adults often do, Bruner is dismissive of her drama, refusing to take her gripes seriously.

What It's About: Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is beginning her senior year at a Catholic high school. She sets a few basic goals for herself. She wants to find a boyfriend, get accepted into an expensive New York City college, and develop a better relationship with her ultra-critical mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf). The film follows her as she meets some of her goals and fails to meet others. 

What It Gets Right About Teens: Writer/director Greta Gerwig really taps into the way adolescents strive to gain independence. Lady Bird is trying to break away from her mother's grasp and forge her own identity. She's also figuring out what she wants life to look like. Her timetable for achieving everything is a little unrealistic, reflecting that long-standing desire of adolescents to shed childhood and embrace the thrilling possibilities of adulthood. Teenage rebellion is also part of the story, with the title character clearly taking a perverse pleasure in upsetting her disapproving mother. 

The Most Relatable Scene: Lady Bird and Marion argue while in the car together. In the span of just 45 seconds, they fight about her work ethic, her inability to pass her driver's test, her choice of college, and even her name. Marion despises being asked to call her daughter by a self-given nickname, but the moniker is a crucial part of Lady Bird's identity. The sequence is a perfect encapsulation of teen/parent strife. 

What It's About: Rising freshman Riley Anderson is a jumble of mixed emotions after learning that her best friends Bree and Grace are heading off to a different high school than her at the end of the summer. Devastated by the news and caught in internal turmoil due to an influx of new emotions thanks to puberty, Riley deals with a growing sense of anxiety that lead her from one terrible decision to another as she attempts to befriend a group of cool older kids from her new school. 

What It Gets Right About Teens: Leave it to Pixar to perfectly capture the complete confusion of the tween years in an animated effort about  anthropomorphic feelings that live in the head of a 13-year-old. Disney's Inside Out 2 re-creates the awkward adjustments and socially inept moments young adults must endure when they transition from middle school to high school. Poor Riley is at the mercy of her many emotions, each fighting for control as they attempt to act in her best interests. 

The Most Relatable Scene: After a restless night of worrying thanks to Anxiety, Riley doesn't have the scrimmage she expects in the final match to determine her future on her hockey team. She gets two goals, but plays so aggressively she hurts her best friend Grace and is sent to the penalty box. As Anxiety works overtime in an attempt to fix the situation, Riley pays the price with a panic attack. 

Her heart beats a mile a minute while sweat pours down her face as she relives her mistakes again and again. It is a moment almost anyone can relate to, but hard to watch a teen suffer through on her own. Luckily, Grace and Bree soon come to her rescue just as the emotion Joy is able to put a stop to Anxiety. 

What It's About: Teenage Duncan (Liam James) is stuck spending the summer at a beach house with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell), whom he loathes. Desperate to get out, he lands a job at a nearby water park. There, he's mentored by Owen (Sam Rockwell), the park's perpetually wisecracking manager. 

What It Get Right About Teens: Adolescents are notorious for having trouble connecting with their parents - and, in cases of divorce, their parents' significant other. That means having a non-relative as a role model can be important. The Duncan/Owen friendship shows how an adult being able to talk to a teen on their level will make a huge difference. Every teenager needs somebody to look up to as they navigate life's minefield. Having one makes growing up seem just a little less scary. 

The Most Relatable Scene: In a confessional moment, Duncan tells Owen about his tumultuous home life and how different he wishes things could be. He adds that working at the water park is the only “safe” place in his life where he feels accepted for who he is. He finds the companionship there that he doesn't have anywhere else.