18 films and TV shows like ‘Euphoria’ that will send you spiralling
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Moderated by Tomas Kauer 
It’s not as though we choose to deliberately ignore the wishes of our own mental health, but Euphoria is a TV show we just can’t quit. Sure, there’s some dark plotlines and lashings of self destructive behaviour, but it’s all deliciously sugar coated in high impact glam, enviable outfits and a single wholesome relationship between Fezco and Lexi.
Granted there are some boundaries in place to prevent us from the emotional hangover that comes with gulping down the series in one fell swoop, namely the fact that HBO are drip feeding us a single episode a week. But if the weekly dose of teen spirit has you feeling a little reckless, then we’re bringing you 18 movies and TV shows like Euphoria to submerge yourself in while you wait for the next episode of Euphoria to drop.
Just as Euphoria spares us none of the messy, gut-wrenching realities of being a teenager, nor do these onscreen gems. These are the shows and films that walked so Euphoria could run, slap us in the face, and leave us shaking in the foetal position for hours after each episode is over. Enjoy, I guess?
Thirteen (2003)
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Coming of age can be confusing and painful, but in Thirteen it’s downright frightening. The film closes in on a baby-faced Evan Rachel Wood who plays Tracy, a naive 13-year-old trying to figure it all out. When Tracy crosses paths with Evie, brought to life by Nikki Reed, the film takes a dark turn and their friendship quickly becomes toxic. There’s drugs, piercings, distressing scenes between mother and daughter, and provocative commentary on the sexuality of young girls, the way it’s at once punished, yet fetishised and capitalised on.
Skins (2007)
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Skins is in a league of its own. Its unfiltered, irreverent portrait of being a teenager sliced through the oversaturated and polished American accounts of jocks and nerds, clasping at something far more authentic. Here, the characters speak like teenagers did, at a time when ‘Indie sleaze’ was not some exercise in nostalgia. It also unearthed talent like Dev Patel, Hannah Murray, Kayla Scodelario, and Jack O’Connell while bringing us an arrogant and extremely loveable version of Nicholas Hoult. Dig in.
Betty (2020)
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We love skate films. What’s more, we love skate films that include wom*n. Especially the groovers over at Skate Kitchen. Styled in Sandy Liang, Collina Strada, Simon Miller and a hell of a lot of Vans, the characters ride around the streets of NYC getting in trouble, getting out of trouble, to bring us the perfect clash of culture, fashion, drama and inspiration.
Fish Tank (2009)
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Andrea Arnold has an eye for teenage coming-of-age dramas. Hers is precise, skin-scent intimate, tender, and concerned with life taking place in the gutters, backstreets, and confines of government housing. Fish Tank is no exception. Arnold trails Mia, a rough-around-the-edges teen kicking about town after being booted out of school. She drinks a lot, but not as much as her mother Joanne, who is as messy as the parties she throws. There’s a feisty younger sister too. When Joanne gets a new boyfriend Conor, played by Michael Fassbender, the three women can lose themselves in a white picket fantasy, that is until Conor goes off script.
Kids (1995)
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When the end credits roll, Kids will leave you feeling as if you need to take a shower. But no amount of scrubbing will dislodge this film from your memory. It’s grimy, it’s confronting, and at the time of it’s 1995 release, it was positively explosive. Just as Euphoria is praised for being true to life, Kids offered an unsettling glimpse at life as a teenager living in NYC in the 90s. Also, it was the film that catapulted both Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny to fame. However, more recently the ethics of director and screenwriter Larry Clark and Harmony Korine have been called into question, something that is being explored in the forthcoming documentary titled The Kids.
Mid90s (2018)
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Jonah Hill, we’re yours, signed, sealed, delivered. But if there’s anything that could have heightened our love for the actor-cum-director, it would be his earnest skateboarding project titled Mid90s. As he stated in countless interviews leading up to the films release, “skate movies are always done incorrectly; I was well aware of that going into it”. But not this one, it has heart. Where other skate films are concerned with cheesy, exaggerated tricks and jargon, this is refreshingly underdone. Clothing is subtle, less costume-like, and the relationships while gritty, imperfect and laced with toxic masculinity, aren’t romanticised. They’re as real and as nuanced as the performances of the non-actors hired for the film, like Sunny Suljic, Olan Prenatt and Gio Galicia. Plus Alexa Demie and Paloma Elsesser’s younger sister, Ama, also star.
Lords of Dogtown (2005)
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Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch and Nikki Reed are just a few faces you can expect from this film that charts the rise urethane wheels and thus the rise of the legendary Z-Boys skateboarding team with a focus on icons Jay Adams, Stacey Peralta and Tony Alva. Set in Venice Beach in the 70s, it’s saturated in gritty surf culture, parties, slang, and naturally teenage angst.
Grand Army (2020)
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Honestly, we’ll watch anything that features any of Pamela Adlon’s offspring. Odessa A’zion plays Joey, who just one of five kids the camera zeros in on at this New York City high school. Grand Army digs into each of their lives, resurfacing with scenes that cover everything from white feminism and sexual assault to school shootings and privilege.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
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It’s the seventies and it’s also the last day of school before summer break. What a perfect place to capture the chaotic, restless energy of teens on the brink of adulthood. Alice Cooper’s School’s Out blares through the speakers, there’s slow, mind-numbing stoner talk, a young Milla Jovovich and a Matthew McConaughey who’s far too old to be hanging around high-schoolers.
Poison Ivy (1992)
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Our favourite Drew Barrymore era — although E.T. definitely ranks for cuteness. Here she plays Ivy, a meddling ‘nymphet’ who attaches herself to her rich classmate Sylvie. As the film unravels and the plotline gets darker, Ivy seeps into Sylvie’s life and tears her family apart. Of course, female desire is rarely this destructive and Sylvie’s dad should be in jail. And if we’re being truly honest with ourselves, we’re here for Ivy’s shaggy bronze hair and the grungy crushed velvet and leather ensembles.
In My Skin (2018)
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In My Skin is not a salacious gambol through adolescence like some other titles on this list. It’s urgent with unsuspecting depth and plotlines that will have you crying like a wounded animal into your couch pillows. For some of us, it’s captures the reasons why we prefer British coming-of-age stories instead on those from the US. Bethan has constructed a vivid world of conservatories and nights at the ballet, a story she envelops her classmates in to hide the reality of her violent father and mother struggling with bipolar. It’s a watertight story and the only thing keeping her life from unravelling in suburban Cardiff.
Mini’s First Time (2006)
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Nikki Reed is a master of making our skin crawl and the best example of this is in Mini’s First Time. For the brave, it’s a vulgar film about a teenager seeking out her stepfather as an accomplice to murder her mother. Throughout the film there are some truly heinous scenes, but none so bad as watching a 48-year-old Alec Baldwin make out with 18-year-old Reed. What? spiralling was the brief.
Freaks and Geeks (1999)
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Freaks and Geeks is widely considered the perfect one season television show and we tend to agree. It takes us into the monotone halls of high school in the 80s where The Who and Led Zeppelin reigned supreme. Sam Weir is a scrawny newcomer to the institution and he’s simply trying to figure it all out. Meanwhile his brainy yet disillusioned older sister Lindsay, thinks she has and in a silent protest is hanging out with the burnouts.
Palo Alto (2013)
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Gia Coppola’s directorial debut is definitely a slow burn. Nothing too much happens but that is the point. Teenagers rove about in a torpor, crushes remain unrequited, characters almost get in trouble, they teeter on the defined edges of black and white, but never quite make it over the line. It’s suburban blues and time unmarked and Emma Roberts does it all magnificently.
American Honey (2016)
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Another tender portrait of life on the margins by Andrea Arnold. While it’s hard to get behind a film with Shia LeBeouf, the performances given by Sasha Lane, who is set to star in the adaptation of Conversations with Friends, and Riley Keough of Zola fame, are too good to turn away from. Set on a sprawling road in middle America nowhere, Star crosses paths with a motley crew of teens at a supermarket. She joins them in their minivan, dank with bong smoke and the sweaty, musty film that comes from a tangle of teen bodies, to sell magazine subscriptions across the country. Arnold’s lens masterfully oscillates between boredom and intensity with the high octane, all-or-nothing feverishness of being a teen.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
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Talk about films that get under your skin. Mysterious Skin is a disquieting, uneasy watch about trauma and child abuse. Helmed by David Arrakis, he deftly weaves together the lives of Brian (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Neil (Brady Corbet) united by events one cannot remember and the other cannot forget. It’s a unsettling glimpse into darkness in the same vein as Requiem for a Dream.
Baby (2018)
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Hear me out, it’s high school but in Rome. Everyone in the cast is extremely hot and extremely rich. Some like to align it with Gossip Girl, but the distinct euro feel of Baby, and its sex work plot line and “school girl by day, party girl by night” spirit is not as hackneyed as you first might think. Also, who doesn’t love Alice Pagani and Benedetta Porcaroli, or their expensive wardrobes?
The Breakfast Club (1985)
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Yes, I know, how original right? The Breakfast Club. But if we’re being completely fair, John Hughes’ influence on teen dramas cannot be ignored. First there’s the soundtrack, an impeccable compilation of 80s tracks. Then there’s the cast, each with their own distinctive looks and personas. And we’ll never turn down an opportunity to see Molly Ringwald looking pretty in pink.
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