It’s Friday evening. While these days you spend Friday nights snorting snakes blood off a hooker’s back, there was a time when Fridays were a more naive and beautiful thing. A couple of years ago Friday was the day you peeled off your unreasonably clammy school shirt, nabbed your parents wine coolers and drank them in a bush with your next door neighbour. I know that sounds sad in retrospect, but don’t worry. You were COMING OF AGE.

We’ve been discussing Coming of Age movies a lot today at Best for Film. We’ve decided that the Coming of Age movie is the older, smarter brother of the teen movie. The C.O.A is ABOUT teens, but not necessarily FOR teens. The C.O.A might take place over a short period of time (Stand by Me, The Breakfast Club) whereas the generic teen film will start in September and end at Senior Prom (American Pie, everything else). The C.O.A will have FEELINGS while the teen will have VIRGINITY.

If you’re still having trouble identifying what it is to come of age in this crazy mixed up world of ours, bribe an older sibling to buy you some Smirnoff Ice, tell your mum you’re staying in a friend’s house, and enjoy our latest Friday Drinking Game.

Take Two Sips When:

A single parent is shamelessly trying to reinstate her or himself into the dating world, much to the chagrin of the lead C.O.A. character.

There is a girl called Andy, Alex or any other name that is traditionally for dudes. PENALTY: Take two more sips if she is sexy in a non-obvious (but at the same time, completely obvious) way.

Your lead character is asked to stay after class. PENALTY: Two more sips if they are asked to stay by a teacher who inspires them.

A character is talented in a way that is unrecognised by The Authority Figures. PENALTY: One extra sip if this is something incredibly nebulous that can easily be captured on screen without any extra work from the actor, i.e., WRITING WORDS or BEING IN A PLAY.

The inspiring teacher is maligned by The Authority Figures.

Take Three Sips When:

Someone has a brief but touching encounter with nature.

If you feel the guidance counsellor has an unnecessarily large role at this school.

Anyone tells another character to step up and/or be a man. PENALTY: Take two more if it involves a clumsy metaphor about a bar mitzvah.

Your lead character is on first-name terms with whoever supervises detention.

Anyone is using furniture in a non-traditional way.

PENALTY: Two more sips if that person is Molly Ringwald.

DOWN IT:

If a character has been forced to accept death as part of the inevitable, and is initially traumatized by this, but then realizes that it is life’s briefness that is instrumental to its beauty. (CHUGCHUGCHUG)

If your lead character began the film as some sort of misfit, but is now rich in social capital.

MacCauley Culkin gets killed by bees.