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Best Young adult Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of young adult cinema — measured across 1,039 indexed frames from 14 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Young adult films over-index on string lights, blood and t-shirt — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Adventureland (2009)

    Greg MottolaDP Terry StaceyIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1987, James Brennan's dreams of a summer European tour before studying at an Ivy League school in New York City are ruined after his parents have a severe career setback. As a result, James must get a summer job to cover his upcoming expenses at the decrepit local amusement park, Adventureland, where he falls in love with a witty co-worker, Emily Lewin. In that bizarrely shady workplace, the young carnies have unforgettable and painful learning experiences about life, love and trust while James discovers what he truly values.

  2. 2

    Scream (1996)

    Wes CravenDP Mark IrwinIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A year after her mother's death, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends started experiencing some strange phone calls. They later learned the calls were coming from a crazed serial killer, in a white faced mask and a large black robe, looking for revenge. His phone calls usually consist of many questions, the main one being: What's your favorite scary movie? Along with much scary movie trivia, ending with bloody pieces of innocent lives scattered around the small town of Woodsboro.

  3. 3

    Whiplash (2014)

    Damien ChazelleDP Sharone MeirIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Nineteen year old Andrew Niemann wants to be the greatest jazz drummer in the world, in a league with Buddy Rich. This goal is despite not coming from a pedigree of greatest, musical or otherwise, with Jim, his high school teacher father, being a failed writer. Andrew is starting his first year at Shaffer Conservatory of Music, the best music school in the United States. At Shaffer, being the best means being accepted to study under Terence Fletcher and being asked to play in his studio band, which represents the school at jazz competitions. Based on their less than positive first meeting, Andrew is surprised that Fletcher asks him to join the band, albeit in the alternate drummer position which he is more than happy to do initially. Andrew quickly learns that Fletcher operates on fear and intimidation, never settling for what he considers less than the best each and every time. Being the best in Fletcher's mind does not only entail playing well, but knowing that you're playing well and if not what you're doing wrong. His modus operandi creates an atmosphere of fear and of every man or woman for him/herself within the band. Regardless, Andrew works hard to be the best. He has to figure out his life priorities and what he is willing to sacrifice to be the best. The other question becomes how much emotional abuse he will endure by Fletcher to reach that greatness, which he may believe he can only achieve with the avenues opened up by Fletcher.

  4. 4

    Happy Death Day (2017)

    Christopher LandonDP Toby OliverIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    A teenage girl, trying to enjoy her birthday, soon realizes that this is her final one. That is, if she can figure out who her killer is. She must relive that day, over and over again, dying in a different way each time. Can she solve her own murder?

  5. 5

    Pitch Perfect (2012)

    Jason MooreDP Julio MacatIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    The Barden Bellas are a collegiate, all-girls a cappella singing group thriving on female pop songs and their perfect looks. After a disastrous failing at last year's finals, they are forced to regroup. Among the new recruits is freshman Beca, an independent, aspiring DJ with no interest in the college life. But after she meets Jesse, from the rival all-male a cappella group, Beca has a new outlook and takes it upon herself to help the Bellas find their new look and sound and get back into the competition.

  6. 6

    The Cabin In The Woods (2012)

    Drew GoddardDP Peter DemingIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Five teenagers head off for a weekend at a secluded cabin in the woods. They arrive to find they are quite isolated with no means of communicating with the outside world. When the cellar door flings itself open, they of course go down to investigate. They find an odd assortment of relics and curios, but when one of the women, Dana, reads from a book, she awakens a family of deadly zombie killers. However, there's far more going on than meets the eye.

  7. 7

    Spider-Man 2 (2004)

    Sam RaimiDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Peter Parker is an unhappy man: after two years of fighting crime as Spider-Man, his life has begun to fall apart. The girl he loves is engaged to someone else, his grades are slipping, he cannot keep any of his jobs, and on top of it, the newspaper Daily Bugle is attacking him viciously, claiming that Spider-Man is a criminal. He reaches the breaking point and gives up the crime fighter's life, once and for all. But after a failed fusion experiment, eccentric and obsessive scientist Dr. Otto Octavius is transformed into super villain Doctor Octopus, Doc Ock for short, having four long tentacles as extra hands. Peter guesses it might just be time for Spider-Man to return, but would he act upon it?

  8. 8

    The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

    Francis LawrenceDP Jo WillemsIMDb 6.6TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Coriolanus Snow at age 18, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem. Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games. only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12.

What young adult films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a young adult frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — string lights is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • string lights7.1×
  • blood3.0×
  • t-shirt2.7×
  • car2.0×
  • hair1.8×
  • blazer1.6×
  • jacket1.6×

How young adult films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate young adult from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 17%high keyvs 12% baseline
  • 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

It Follows (2015) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,039 frames from 14 films carrying the young adult label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/young-adult

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