Richard Linklater's Boyhood was generating buzz well before performing spectacularly at the festival circuit earlier this year. The film, shot for 3-4 days every year for 12 years, checks in on Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he lives through the abuses of a messy divorce, an alcoholic stepfather and all the vices available to adolescents these days. 

While Linklater's project is certainly groundbreaking in scope, the coming-of-age movie has been around for ages. To celebrate the release of Boyhood, we reflect on some of our favorite stories about growing up that are currently available to stream. 

Like Father, Like Son
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda

Almost every film by Hirokazu Koreeda is generally about growing up— just recall 2004's Nobody Knows about a group of children left to raise themselves after their mother goes missing for a number of days. Like Father, Like Son, a story about two boys who were switched at birth, cuts Koreeda's fans a break with a diversity of emotions that don't quite leave you in the same pit of despair as Nobody Knows (which is also available to stream on Netflix.) 

Frances Ha
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Noah Baumbach

The titular Frances grows up and grows apart from her college best friend and post-grad roommate in last summer's indie favorite. Featuring performances from Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver from HBO's Girls, this film tells the story of your trying but formative twenties. 

War Witch
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Kim Nguyen

The Oscar-nominated Tribeca Film title War Witch tells the story of 12-year-old child soldier Komona, whose coming-of-age story takes place during a sub-Saharan civil war. The film earned two 2012 Tribeca Film Festival awards - Best Narrative Feature as well as the Best Actress to Rachel Mwanza for her evocative performance as Komona.

Somewhere
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Sofia Coppola

In Sofia Coppola's 2010 film Somewhere, fictional celebrity Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) must abruptly care for his 11-year-old daughter when she shows up unannounced. Johnny adjusts his celebrity lifestyle to accomodate Cleo (Elle Fanning,) proving that it's never too late to grow up a little.

Short Term 12
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Destin Cretton

We spoke to Brie Larson last year about her role as Grace, an administrator at a short-term foster home, as well as her professional growth as an actress. See also our interview with director Destin Cretton, in which he talked about writing troubled young characters in moments and places of transition.

Blue is the Warmest Color
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Last year's Palme d'Or winner traces the turbulent story of two young lovers over the span of several years as they meet, fall in love, and inevitably outgrow the relationship. A bit of movie trivia—Alma Jodorowsky, granddaughter of acclaimed Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, stars in a supporting role as Béatrice.

Ginger and Rosa
Watch on Amazon Prime
Directed by Sally Potter

At first, Sally Potter's film may seem like another in a long line of independent films in which disillusioned youth mature during the civil unrest in the '60s, but Ginger and Rosa is unique in what it reveals about a dissolving familial structure. The film is less about historical events and more about Ginger's pathway into adulthood as it is informed by her involvement in the decade's counterculture movement.

Lore
Watch on Netflix
Directed by Cate Shortland

After Lore's Nazi parents abandon their family to flee postwar repercussions, she must grow up very quickly in order to lead her siblings to safety at their grandmother's home in Hamburg. Beautifully shot, acted and directed, Lore is a tense, thrilling coming-of-age story.

An Education
Watch on Amazon Prime
Directed by Lone Scherfig

In the role that awarded her international recognition, Carey Mulligan is Jenny Mellor, the ambitious high-school student headed for Oxford. As Jenny works hard to seem sophisticated beyond her years, her brief relationship with a worldly older man reveals to her how starkly she had misimagined adulthood.