Being a student is a period of discoveries, adventures, friendships, and major life problems. You won’t find lighthearted comedies in this selection — just serious dramas ripe to make you recall (or visualize) the most colorful chapters of your student life, your youth, and your self-discovery journey.
Content
- The Piano Teacher
- An Education
- Liberal Arts
- Sierra Burgess Is a Loser
- Detachment
- Student Services
- The Dreamers
- Lady Bird
- Palo Alto
- Bloomington
The Piano Teacher
IMDb: 7.5/10
2001, Drama, Music
Austria, France, Germany; Not Rated
Director: Michael Haneke
Top Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Magimel, Annie Girardot
The film is adapted from a novel by Elfriede Jelinek, a Nobel Prize-winning author in the field of literature. It is a psychological drama about repression, control, and destructive passion. The protagonist, Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert), is a forty-year-old piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. However, behind the façade of discipline lies a fractured personality. Erika lives with her domineering mother, a micro-manager of Erika’s life. Everything changes when one of her pupils, Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel), a gifted, confident young man, expresses an interest in her. Erika falls in love, but her notion of love is rather unconventional. This is a shocking but also deep psychological portrait of a complex personality. The film may not appeal to everyone due to its slow, oppressive pace and explicit scenes of violence and sexual perversion.
An Education
IMDb: 7.3/10
2009, Drama, Romance
UK, USA; PG-13
Director: Lone Scherfig
Top Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina
Inspired by Lynn Barber’s memoirs, the film transports us to 1960s London. Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan) is smart and ambitious, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who dreams of going to Oxford. She comes from a strict, conservative family. But her life changes dramatically when she falls for David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man of charm and influence. David exposes Jenny to jazz clubs, fine dining, and art galleries. She experiences freedom and romance for the first time. But her fairy tale runs up against reality and an unpleasant truth.
Liberal Arts
IMDb: 6.7/10
2012, Comedy, Drama, Romance
USA; PG-13
Director: Josh Radnor
Top Cast: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron
Jesse Fisher (Josh Radnor) is a 35-year-old college admissions officer in New York. He is exhausted by adulthood, frustrated by routine, and professional insecurity. One day, he gets an invitation to the retirement party of his favorite professor at his old college in Ohio. Back in the university environment, he is feeling young again. There, he encounters a 19-year-old student named Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), and a complex but tender relationship starts to blossom. His relationship with Zibby is a romantic fantasy floating above reality. Jesse finds himself at a crossroads — should he continue escaping adulthood or embrace it with all its challenges?
Sierra Burgess Is a Loser
IMDb: 5.8/10
2018, Comedy, Drama, Romance
USA; PG-13
Director: Ian Samuels
Top Cast: Shannon Purser, Kristine Froseth, RJ Cyler
Sierra is a smart, but unpopular girl who has a non-traditional appearance. Disaster strikes, however, when one day, Jamey (Noah Centineo), a cute football player from a nearby school, gets a message from Veronica (Kristine Froseth), the prettiest and most sought-after girl. But it was a mistake, and he accidentally began texting Sierra instead. Veronica helps Sierra keep the act up, as she doesn’t tell Jamey the truth and, as she realizes she likes him, embarks on a virtual relationship with him. But how long does truth remain buried?
Detachment
IMDb: 7.7/10
2011, Drama
USA; Not Rated
Director: Tony Kaye
Top Cast: Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks
The film is a dark, philosophical drama about the education system and the search for meaning in a world that appears to be broken. The main character, Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), is a substitute teacher who never lingers in any school, flitting from one institution to the next. He comes to a struggling urban school in which students are cynical, hostile, and have little time for teachers. An emotionally untethered being, Henry shies away from any meaningful addition, though slowly, his barricades start to dissolve.
Student Services
IMDb: 6.1/10
2010, Drama
France; Not Rated
Director: Emmanuelle Bercot
Top Cast: Déborah François, Mathieu Demy, Alain Cauchi
The film is based on the autobiographical book Mes chères études by Laura D., a young student from France who has to turn to escort work to afford her studies. Laura (Déborah François) is a first-year literature student at university. She’s smart and driven, struggling with money but unable to pay rent, food, or tuition. One day, she discovers, in desperation, an ad online in which a man offers €100 for an hour of “company” with a student. She eventually decided to write back. Over time, however, more and more clients come, each more demanding than the last.
The Dreamers
IMDb: 7.2/10
2003, Drama, Romance
UK, France, Italy; NC-17
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Top Cast: Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green
Paris, 1968. American student Matthew (Michael Pitt) becomes entangled in a love triangle with French twins Theo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green) against the backdrop of political unrest. Director Bernardo Bertolucci sets the characters’ story against a backdrop of the 1968 French protests. The film is famous for its sequences of a sexual nature and habitual cinematic references.
Lady Bird
IMDb: 7.4/10
2017, Comedy, Drama
USA; R
Director: Greta Gerwig
Top Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts
Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The story centers around Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a teenager growing up in Sacramento, as she seeks identity, clashes with her mother, and begs for independence.
Palo Alto
IMDb: 6.2/10
2013, Drama
USA; R
Director: Gia Coppola
Top Cast: Emma Roberts, James Franco, Jack Kilmer
The film explores the lives of teenagers in the suburbs. Set in Palo Alto, California — a wealthy suburb of Silicon Valley — it follows privileged kids as they search for identity, love, and meaning. The characters push the limits of what’s considered taboo by society, but, at their core, they are just lonely kids looking for self-acceptance and love. The screenplay is adapted from the short story collection by James Franco.
Bloomington
IMDb: 5.9/10
2010, Drama, Romance
USA; Not Rated
Director: Fernanda Cardoso
Top Cast: Allison McAtee, Sarah Stouffer, Katherine Ann McGregor
Jacqueline Kirkland (Sarah Stouffer) is an ex-teenage TV star looking to put her past behind her and begin anew. She goes to Bloomington University (Indiana) to escape her mother, producers, and Hollywood. There, she meets Cath (Allison McAtee), a charismatic and confident psychology professor. A passionate romance quickly develops between them, fueled by intellectual attraction and forbidden emotions. However, it becomes a problem when the university finds out about the affair between the student and the professor.
