The kids are not all right...
Movies dealing with kids who are struggling. Themes include child abuse, child neglect, teen runaways, teen drug use, alienation and kids in the foster care system.
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- DirectorAgnès MerletStarsLudovic VandendaeleEric da SilvaSandrine BlanckeBrothers Martin and Simon, not yet teens, are incorrigible vandals; Martin runs away from reform school, Simon from foster homes, and they always find each other in a seacoast town of Lignan, where their destructive behavior is infamous. (It may date to their mother's leaving the family.) Martin is philosophical, romantic, and poetic: he dreams of being the son of a shark; he holds tight to a book about goldfish his mother gave him. In both halting and wild ways, he tries to court Marie, a neighbor girl. Simon, with a pocketknife and an intractable will, seems more dangerous to others. What, on earth, is there for these children-becoming-men?
- DirectorDaniel GrouStarsClaude LegaultRobert NaylorEugénie BeaudryTommy, 10 years old, is well known by Social Services. He is considered a danger to society. Gilles, his guardian at this halfway house, sees potential for redemption in this kid driven by violence.
- DirectorGregg ArakiStarsBrady CorbetJoseph Gordon-LevittElisabeth ShueTwo pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
- DirectorMarshall HerskovitzStarsDanny DeVitoGary SiniseRobert J. Steinmiller Jr.Danny DeVito is John Leary, a professional clown, whose wife's death in a car accident has left him to care for his two young boys.
- DirectorFrank WhaleyStarsNoah FleissKaren YoungCamryn ManheimA disadvantaged, abused, neglected, exploited but basically decent kid slips into criminality while trying to cope with his harsh, inescapable reality.
- DirectorAisling WalshStarsAidan QuinnIain GlenMarc WarrenThe true story of a single teacher's courage to stand up against an untouchable prefect's sadistic disciplinary regime and other abuse in a Catholic Reformatory and Industrial School in 1939 Ireland.
- DirectorPhilippe FalardeauStarsAntoine L'ÉcuyerGabriel MailléCatherine FaucherDuring the summer of 1968, Leon, a 10-year-old boy, navigates the hardships of young love, his lunatic mother's whims, and his urges to vandalize the house of his neighbors.
- DirectorLukas MoodyssonStarsOksana AkinshinaArtyom BogucharskiyPavel PonomaryovSixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.
- DirectorYves SimoneauStarsPhilip JohnsonRosie O'DonnellRuby DeeDr. Maureen Brennan, a psychiatrist at a youth treatment center, encounters her newest patient, a bi-racial boy named America. Through their sessions, Dr. Brennan helps America come to terms with his roller-coaster life, which began when, as an infant, he was taken by authorities from his crack-addicted mother and placed into foster care. A short time of stability in his life occurred when he lived with Mrs. Harper, the elderly nanny of one of his foster families. He was reunited with his mother at one point, but she soon abandoned him and he went back into foster care. Full of anger and lagging behind in school, America retreats further away from society after years of sexual abuse. After attempting suicide, America is placed in a treatment center where Dr. Brennan helps him open up about his painful past and discover the support and courage he needs to get his life back on track.
- DirectorMenno MeyjesStarsJohn CusackAmanda PeetBobby ColemanA science-fiction writer, recently widowed, considers whether to adopt a hyper-imaginative 6-year-old abandoned and socially rejected boy who says he's really from Mars.
- DirectorLarry PeerceStarsMel HarrisDwight SchultzAshley PeldonA pastor and his wife adopt a brother and a sister, but the girl has terrible outbursts of rage. They get her in treatment and try to find out the reason for this.
- DirectorAndrey KravchukStarsNikolay SpiridonovMariya KuznetsovaNikolay ReutovSet in 2002, an abandoned 5-year-old boy living in a rundown orphanage in a small Russian village is adopted by an Italian family.
- DirectorPaul FeigStarsBen TibberJim CaviezelJoan PlowrightA twelve-year-old boy escapes from a Bulgarian Communist concentration camp and sets out on a journey to reach Denmark.
- DirectorJessie NelsonStarsSean PennMichelle PfeifferDakota FanningAn intellectually disabled man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
- DirectorDeborah KampmeierStarsDakota FanningDavid MorsePiper LaurieA drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
- DirectorLee DanielsStarsGabourey SidibeMo'NiquePaula PattonIn New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.
- DirectorBilly Bob ThorntonStarsBilly Bob ThorntonDwight YoakamJ.T. WalshKarl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
- DirectorChris MengesStarsWilliam HurtNathan YappKeith AllenGraham, a lonely Welsh postal worker, adopts James, a troubled ten-year-old boy. Graham always wanted a son, but James loves his biological father too much to give Graham a chance. Will the two be able to accept each other as family?
- DirectorJeremy ThomasStarsJohn HurtChristian BaleDaniel BenzaliBobby Platt is a mentally slow young man who escapes an abusive, hateful stepfather who has killed his pets one by one. To save himself, Bobby runs away and meets a strange old man who wanders the highways to bury roadkill animals. Bobby becomes the old man's apprentice and learns to see the world of nature in a strange idyllic way. But soon the shadow of his stepfather catches up to him and Bobby's world explodes into a grotesque nightmare.
- DirectorChristophe RuggiaStarsVincent RottiersAdèle HaenelRochdy LabidiOrphaned 12-year-old twins Joseph and Chloé have been on the run together. Chloé is autistic, non-verbal and fears being touched. Joseph dearly loves her and dreams she will recover if they find their parents and fight the system.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsKirsten DunstJosh HartnettJames WoodsA group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.
- DirectorCatherine HardwickeStarsEvan Rachel WoodHolly HunterNikki ReedA thirteen-year-old girl's relationship with her mother is put to the test as she discovers drugs, sex, and petty crime in the company of her cool but troubled best friend.
- DirectorClaudia WeillStarsBeverly D'AngeloDana IveyMichael McGradyIn the 1970's, a teenager staying in an unwed mothers' institution is forced to give up her baby. Eighteen years later, she discovers that her child is dead, and that he was possibly murdered by his religiously -strict adoptive mom.
- DirectorSandor SternStarsVeronica HamelPam DawberDaniel Hugh KellyA recently-widowed doctor moves with her daughter to start at a new hospital. A loving mother brings her son in for treatment. The doctor suspects that something is wrong and theorizes that the mother is deliberately making her son sick so she can rush him to the hospital and get attention for herself. When the doctor decides to restrict the mother's access to her son and reports her to Child Services, the mother decides to sue the doctor and the hospital. Some members of the hospital board don't agree with her diagnosis, or they think she's overreacting. Even away from his mother, the child remains sick. Is the doctor right or wrong?
- DirectorGilbert CatesStarsLindsay WagnerPeter CoyoteTaliesin JaffeA social worker (Lindsay Wagner) starts to work with a shy, withdrawn 6-year-old (Taliesin Jaffe) whom she suspects is a sexual-abuse victim.