I'm not trying to tell you to stop watching Twilight after your third sitting or asking you to refrain from gushing over Zac Efron in High School Musical, but there are a lot of other cool flicks just intended for the kind of audience you belong to. Yeah, call it teen angst, growing pains, or teen flicks, what we have here is a list of up and coming movies you may want to preview - as usual we divided the list in parts - this is Part 1 and Part 2 will be posted next.

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Playing like "Juno" junior, the engagingly irreverent "Lymelife" is a period suburban rites-of-passage story with a pitch-perfect cast headed by Alec Baldwin, Timothy Hutton and not one, but two Culkin brothers -- neither of them Macaulay.

Lymelife: That's part of the film review of Michael Rechtshaffen over at The Hollywood Reporter for Lymelife, which debuted at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival last September and won the coveted International Critic's Award.

Set in late-seventies Long Island, Lymelife follows two families who crumble when tangled relationships, real estate problems and Lyme disease converge in the heart of suburbia. Fifteen-year-old Scott Bartlett is a gentle boy, radically different from his blustery father Mickey and tightly wired mother Brenda. An outbreak of Lyme disease, as well as the accompanying paranoia, hits their suburban community hard. When the Bartletts' neighbour Charlie Bragg is diagnosed with the illness, Brenda calms her fears by duct-taping Scott's cuffs shut.

Here's a video featuring an interview with the Culkin brothers Keiran and Rory who played brothers in the film:

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Despite the onset of this mysterious ailment, the two families are quite busy. Since Charlie is unable to work, his wife Melissa must keep the income flowing herself. She is hired by Mickey, who is the developer of an enormous subdivision, and though this gesture is a friendly favour, it is also patently motivated by lust. Mickey's history of philandering is one of the many things upsetting his wife Brenda, who yearns for the comfort of their old neighbourhood in Queens. And growing up amid this marital cocktail is Scott, who has been in love with the Braggs' daughter Adrianna for all of his young life. The news both good and bad is that she is starting to return his interest.

Things really heat up when Jimmy, Scott's older brother, comes home on leave from the army. Jimmy shares many of his father's personality traits, and his confrontations with Mickey trigger events that permanently alter both families.

More about Lymelife from its IMDb Movie Details page.

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The way the film tells its story is very interesting and original. It goes back and forth in time between before and after the death of the mother but it’s the way in which it’s edited that sets it apart from tons of other movies that have used the same back-and-forth technique. It inserts each of the key scenes at just the perfect moment for the viewer to feel the emotion intended; it is out of sync and there was subsequently a danger that it would be hard to keep up with. But not for a single moment does that occur – it’s at heart a simple film just done in such a way that makes it creatively complex.

Dummy: That's part of the review by Ross Miller who watched this film at the recent Edinburgh International Film Festival and rave about it. With Aaron Johnson playing one of the young leads, I see no reason why you should not see this movie. Even with just a short role in The Illusionist, Johnson is a wonderful young actor to watch- intense, with a flair for the dramatics, he's definitely one of the coolest young actors around.

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Dummy is a coming of age drama about two young brothers whose lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother dies suddenly, leaving them to fend for themselves.

While Danny loses himself in music, sex and drugs, his younger brother Jack takes action transforming, with the help of some make up and his mothers old clothes, a life size mannequin into a brand new mummy for him to talk to. Jacks obsession with this new member of the family leads to both comic misunderstandings and bitter antagonism as the pair battle through grief, anger and denial. Finally, the boys intense struggle to survive in an upside-down world leads to a new understanding that gives them both hope for the future.

More about Dummy from a recent tMF article about Aaron Johnson.

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Few films have attempted to tackle this difficult period between childhood and adulthood in anything like so stark a fashion. Nothing here is romanticised. There's also overt treatment of teenage sexuality, again presenting a dramatic contrast with mainstream fare. But Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging gets away with it remarkably well.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging: EyeforFilm's Jennie Kermode wrote the above as part of her review for this movie. If Dummy features a dramatic and intense Aaron Johnson, Angus, Thongs features Aaron playing the girl's romantic crush with another talented British young talent by the name of Georgia Groome playing the lead.

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Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is based on the popular teenage novels Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and It's OK, I'm wearing really big knickers by Louise Rennison. The movie is a coming of age story, following fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson, played by Georgia Groome as she tries to get a boyfriend and throw the greatest fifteenth birthday party ever, while trying to keep her parents, played by British comedians Alan Davies and Karen Taylor, happy. The film is set in Eastbourne, a coastal town in England.

The movie is inspired by the John Hughes movies of the 80's, most notably Sixteen Candles, as well as the personal experience of both Rennison and Chadha. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging was primarily filmed in Brighton and Eastbourne, UK, with interior work filmed at Ealing Studios, London due to the studio's rich heritage of British comedy.

More goodies and details about the film from the official movie site.

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I have been looking forward to for quite sometime is Greg Mottola’s first feature after “Superbad,” titled “Adventureland.” It is a somewhat autobiographical riff about a recent college graduate (played by Jesse Eisenberg of “The Squid and the Whale”) who ends up stuck with what seems to be the lamest summer job ever: working at the local amusement park (after his parents are unable to pay for his Euro trip).

Adventureland: Nick Plowman over at Fataculture reminded me that Greg Mottola's follow up to Superbad has just released a trailer. It's a good thing that the lead is not Michael Cera but Jesse Eisenberg, definitely the more talented between the two. It also stars the young, successful and very tired Kristen Stewart after the whirlwind campaign for Twilight.

Eisenberg, who happens to be a personal favorite of mine, was way impressive in The Squid and the Whale, but an earlier film Roger Dodger already gave me the impression that Eisenberg has this thing for refusing to play just about any role. The kid has loads of talent, and without being arrogant, lets people know he'll only do movies he likes. That's basically the reason why I'm having Adventureland on this list.

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The film, set in the summer of 1987, concerns an uptight recent college grad who is forced to take a minimum wage job at the local amusement park after realizing he can't afford his dream European tour. The experience helps him to loosen up a bit as he finds first love, forms new friendships and matures just in time to enter the real world in the fall.

More of Adventureland from its IMDb Details page.

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When it came to selecting the lead role of Poppy, it was important to find a young American actress who could play a self-obsessed, pampered southern California socialite, as well as convincingly carry off a gradual transformation into a considerate, fresh-faced English schoolgirl. In popular teen actress Emma Roberts, Moore and the producers found the perfect blend. With a resume that includes Unfabulous, a successful Nickelodeon television show about the trials of a teenage girl, as well as the big-screen adaptation of Nancy Drew and the comedy Aquamarine, Emma Roberts was just the young woman for the part.

Wild Child: Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew, Aquamarine) stars in the comedy Wild Child as 16-year-old Poppy: a self-obsessed, incorrigible brat who lives a pampered life in her L.A. world. Though she’s handed credit cards with unlimited balances and surrounded by countless hangers-on, Poppy can’t escape the mounting frustration she feels with her family situation. And she makes sure that everyone knows it.

After an over-the-top prank pushes her father, Gerry (Aidan Quinn, television’s Canterbury’s Law, Dark Matter), one step too far, Poppy is shipped off to an English boarding school. Finding herself in a foreign world of early curfews, stern matrons and mandatory lacrosse, the Malibu princess has finally met her match: a school of British girls who won’t tolerate her spoiled ways.

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Under the watchful eye of the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Kingsley (Natasha Richardson, Evening, The White Countess), and surrounded by a new circle of friends, Poppy begrudgingly realizes her bad-girl behavior will only get her so far. But just because she must grow into a fine young lady doesn’t mean this wild child won’t be spending every waking hour shaking up a very proper system…

Wild Child is set to be released in the U.S. on May 8, 2009. Visit the movie's official website for more details.

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More cool flicks coming up in Part 2.

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Comments (3)

wild child? wow I didn't see that coming

One of my favorite teen movies of all time is Heathers! its hilarious! kinda black humor just amazing...oh! winona and christian slater! so much potencial and...well i love both in that movie so...

I adore Donnie Darko too! I've heard theyre making a sequel...really stupid if you ask me but could you please tell me if its truth??

cinthia , December 07, 2008

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I forgot running with scissors! that amzing too

cinthia , December 07, 2008

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I Just saw Wild Child, and thought the actress's in it were really great, not just the lead but also the supporting actresses were hillarious and great...

I also just saw Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, such a great teen movie, not as good as the books, but the actress did a great job with what she was given..

I'm looking forward to Adventureland, and will have to look up Lymelife, I loved Rpdger Dodger, I bought it on a sale rack and fell in love with the actor and the storyline..

Chrystine , December 10, 2008

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