Nowhere Boy (2009)
A chronicle of John Lennon’s first years, focused mainly in his adolescence and his relationship with his stern aunt Mimi, who raised him, and his absentee mother Julia, who re-entered his life at a crucial moment in his young life.
Cast:
Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Sam Bell
House Arrest (1996)
High-schooler Grover Beindorf and his younger sister Stacy decide that their parents, Janet and Ned, are acting childishly when they decide to divorce after 18 years of marriage, so they lock them up in the basement until they’ll sort out their problems. Their schoolfriends also decide to do the same with their parents to solve their respective problems.
Cast:
Kyle Howard, Jennifer Love Hewitt
Staying Together (1989)
After 25 years in the fast food business, father McDermott one morning proclaims in front of his three sons that he hated dealing with chickens all the time, and that’s why he sold the restaurant last afternoon. For his sons, who counted on taking it over some time, this comes as a shock. With the oldest son Brian moving out in rage and frustration, the family starts breaking apart. Will they manage to rearrange their lives and reconcile with their parents?
Cast:
Sean Astin, Daphne Zuniga, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Quill
Tex (1982)
Coming-of-age adventure about two teenage brothers and their struggles to grow up, on their own, after their mother dies and their father leaves them.
Cast:
Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez
Stepsister from Planet Weird (2000)
Megan Larson is an ordinary teenage girl. Her workaholic father Fred and windsurfing mother Kathy are divorced, and Megan longs for them to get back together, as much as she wants her little brother Trevor to be less annoying. But the thing she wants the most is for a popular guy named Cutter to be her boyfriend, so her dearest wish is to be in with the popular group. But things get more out of control when her mother meets Cosmo Cola, a nice but very strange man. He has a pretty and very intelligent daughter named Ariel who is even weirder than her dad.
Cast:
Courtnee Draper, Tamara Hope
This Boy’s Life (1993)
In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he’s an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.
Cast:
Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Eliza Dushku
White Oleander (2002)
Astrid Magnussen is a 15 year old girl, living in California. Her mother, Ingrid, is a beautiful, free-spirited poet. Their life, though unusual, is satisfying until one day, a man named Barry Kolker (that her mother refers to at first as “The goat man”) comes into their lives, and Ingrid falls madly in love with him, only to have her heart broken, and her life ruined. For revenge, Ingrid murders Barry with the deadly poison of her favourite flower: The White Oleander. She is sent to prison for life, and Astrid has to go through foster home after foster home. Throughout nearly a decade she experiences forbidden love, religion, near-death experiences, drugs, starvation, and how it feels to be loved. But throughout these years, she keeps in touch with her mother via letters to prison. And while Ingrid’s gift is to give Astrid the power to survive, Astrid’s gift is to teach her Mother about love.
Cast:
Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright, Renée Zellweger
Little Women (1994)
With their father away fighting in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, men friends start to become a part of the household.
Cast:
Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz
Soul Surfer (2011)
13 year-old Bethany Hamilton is a champion surfer who was born to be in the water. But after a fun night out night surfing and what should be a fun day in the water, she is attacked by a shark and loses her arm. Rushed to the hospital, she remains calm, and maintains her faith in God. Now she has to re-learn how to do everything with only one arm - including how to surf. It will take her friends, family, and her Christian faith to get her back into the water, but if that is where she is meant to be, she will find a way to get there.
Cast:
AnnaSophia Robb, Carrie Underwood, Ross Thomas, Chris Brochu, Lorraine Nicholson
Sky High (2005)
It all begins when young Will Stronghold, the son of the two famous superheroes: Steve and Josie, A.K.A. the incredibly strong, seemingly invulnerable Commander and and the high-speed flying Jetstream. However, Will does not actually know if he has any powers of his own, and has not told his parents this. He and his best friend, Layla are facing their first day of a secret school in the clouds like none on earth: Sky High, the first and only high school for kids with super-human powers going through crime-fighting puberty. But with no apparent superpowers of his own, however, Will seems destined to grow up a mere sidekick. But as he discovers his true strengths, he’ll also learn that it takes loyalty and teamwork to truly become a hero!
Cast:
Michael Angarano, Danielle Panabaker, Dee Jay Daniels, Kevin Heffernan
