Movie suggestions please.

January 20, 2014 1:40 PM

I want to show a movie to a group of 15-16 year olds after we've finished reading Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian".

Basically I'm looking for a movie where the main character, preferably a teenager, makes a life decision that makes him/her a pariah in the community.

If I can't find one along that storyline, I'd go for any movie featuring a teenage protagonist who struggles with alienation, race, or poverty.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

posted by figaro to Education (11 answers total)

Bend it Like Beckham? Girl struggles with race, belonging, identity and gender, and her choice to play football leads to pretty strong negative reactions from her family and community.
posted by escapepod at 1:47 PM on January 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

Winter in the Blood, adapted from the novel by James Welch.
posted by Pudhoho at 1:57 PM on January 20, 2014

It might be Sherman Alexie overload but how about Smoke Signals?
posted by Requiax at 2:08 PM on January 20, 2014 [5 favorites]

SE Hinton's "The Outsiders" is pretty classic. Poverty, murder, wayward, youth, Ralph Macchio, it has all the bases covered.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:44 PM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

"The Outsiders", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was a favorite of mine growing up. KokuRyu did mention Ralph Macchio, but forgot to mention all of the leading cast members:

Patrick Swayze
Tom Cruise
Ralph Macchio
C. Thomas Howell
Matt Dillon
Rob Lowe
Emilio Estevez
Diane Lane

All became stars, some still are. They might not know all of them, but will likely recognize some.
posted by Leenie at 3:02 PM on January 20, 2014

One that immediately comes to mind is Speak. It's about a girl who gets raped at a party and calls the cops, thus losing her best friend and becoming a social pariah.
posted by madonna of the unloved at 3:28 PM on January 20, 2014

Heh I came in to suggest Smoke Signals also.
posted by RustyBrooks at 4:08 PM on January 20, 2014

The Nasty Girl might be relevant---about a girl who becomes a pariah in her German town when she investigates what the town did during the war. In subtitled German, though.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 4:27 PM on January 20, 2014

Summer of My German Soldier (based on a book) is about a 12 year old girl who hides an escaped German prisoner of war in her garage. Following his capture she definitely becomes a pariah in the eyes of the community and to her own family.
posted by katyggls at 4:35 PM on January 20, 2014

But I'm a Cheerleader is a comedy about a girl who is sent to "conversion therapy".

Speak was a book first.

My all time favorite book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but I'm not that big on the films made from it.
posted by brujita at 9:31 PM on January 20, 2014

It's an older movie, but The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner fits some of your criteria.
posted by gudrun at 9:56 PM on January 20, 2014