Welcome to the end of May! This month represents not only flowers blooming and summer warmth around the corner but also celebration: Graduation. As with any major event in my life, I turn to the movies in this ceremony of joy and excitement.
In the following ten movies, I hope you will also discover the happiness, melancholy, and universality of the graduate experience—one that can also equally be varied and singular, and by no means comprehensively encapsulated by the following list!
Lady Bird (2017)
What makes for a great graduation movie if not a movie that shows a character who navigates all that leads up to graduation: her senior year of high school. In Lady Bird, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) goes through every classic coming-of-age twist and turn, set to the tune of leaving behind an old home in favor of a new life away from her loving but complicated family, especially her mother. Director-writer Greta Gerwig’s tender and hilarious portrayal of this titular character’s final year of high school feels as original and thrilling eight years later, just as special as it was when I first saw it as a newly minted high school graduate in 2017.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
This last-day-of-high-school film is aright, alright, alright…of course. An excellent example of the necessity of post-school dilly-dallying and drive-in fast food, this movie feels like the thrill and dread of summer vacation wrapped up in one story. Meanwhile, its excellent ensemble performances are what make the movie most memorable, and Matthew McConaughey’s shaggy hair and scraggly bright-blonde mustache are truly unforgettable.
High School Musical 3 (2008)
From the film that made us believe in high school sweethearts, High School Musical 3 is not only an impeccable post-graduation film but also an incandescent musical in its own right. Truthfully, Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella’s (Vanessa Hudgens) post-graduation plans are just the tip of the iceberg in this movie: incredible dance numbers, meaningful character development, and an emotional send-off for a beloved franchise make the film worth returning to so many years later.
May December (2023)
Stay with me here — a graduation movie just has to include graduation, right? Let’s return to this 2023 film about an odd trio of characters with a novel eye toward the graduation scene. I love this movie, but what transforms it from a good to a great movie is this moment: that heartbreaking shot of Charles Melton as Joe, tearful on the sidelines as his children walk across the graduation stage; when actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman)—throughout the movie shadowing Gracie (Julianne Moore), who raped Joe when he was 13 and she was 36, then subsequently married and had children with him—realizes the woman she’s been following for a movie role based on Grace’s life isn’t quite as she seems. A family gathering fraught with intense relationships against the backdrop of a hot football field swarming with other families? Sign me up!
Return to Seoul (2022)
If graduation bears the connotations of new beginnings and self-discovery, then there’s no better film to watch than Return to Seoul. The film follows a young woman, Freddie (Park Ji-min), whose French parents adopted her from South Korea, as she returns to her birth country to find her biological parents. Strikingly original and carried by Park’s magnetic acting, this film resembles the post-graduation journey of self-curiosity, told in an inventive medium.
Girls (2012–2017)
Speaking of post-graduation anxieties—but with a mix of failures, mistakes, and poor decisions—try watching Lena Dunham’s Girls, a show that parodies the lives of a couple of twenty-somethings in New York City (arguably post-graduation). Their actions are cringe, and their decisions are often thoughtless or self-centered, but there’s something magical about Dunham’s construction of these girls’ lives: ones that, among the silliness and cruelties, are filled with love, dedication, and loyalty.
The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
Want to revisit middle school? In this truly classic tale that follows our beloved Lizzie’s (Hilary Duff) adventures through Rome after middle school graduation, you can watch this film for a bit of nostalgia, romance, and humor. Of course, there’s the added benefit of the absolutely banging song “What Dreams Are Made Of” with Lizzie and Isabella Parigi (Duff again, but brunette), pop sensation to the stars.
Dope (2015)
Following the senior-year hijinks of Malcolm (Shameik Moore), this coming-of-age film follows a nerdy but endearing protagonist placed in entertaining and eccentric situations. Excellent performances meet compelling college/prom/end-of-the-school-year plot points, essential ingredients, for the purposes of this list, that the film would be incomplete without.
Sing Street (2016)
Set in 1980s Dublin, this romantic-comedy-musical is everything I want in a feel-good, after-graduation movie. It follows a group of boys who start a band for the lead singer, Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), to impress a girl, Raphina (Lucy Boynton). And why not? As the band Sing Street, the boys write some of the best film-songs of all time, especially “Drive It Like You Stole It,” which reimagines the song’s performance as an American 50s school dance. The ending of the movie also feels like a graduation—from a community that Conor wants to escape and from the authority he wishes to undermine.
A Ghost Story (2017)
Time is cyclical; we repeat our routines and replicate our traditions. David Lowery’s mesmerizing, ironically small-scale film about one’s life and legacy beautifully illustrates these ideas—ones I feel are comparable to our lives post-graduation. We wear the caps and gowns and tassels and hoods; we walk the path across the stage where others have walked before us. At the same time, we walk into an unknown future, where we might be haunted or comforted by the ghosts that surround us. It’s time to graduate; let’s get existential!
List Courtesy of Arleigh Rodgers
Feature Image Credit to Walt Disney Studios via Screen Rant