If, like us, you are still not emotionally prepared to say goodbye to the chaotic, self-destructive world of Euphoria, welcome to the club. While the HBO hit may have started as a story about messy teenagers, it quickly became something much darker: a portrait of damaged young adults dragging every bad decision with them into adulthood. And somehow, we could not look away.
If you are craving that same sinking feeling; the kind of watch that leaves you anxious, hollow and emotionally exhausted, these films deliver exactly that. We’d class them as dark coming-of-age watches; stories that explore the harsher, uglier side of growing up.
Lilya 4 ever
Where to watch: Prime Video, or rent on Apple TV and Amazon Video.
This is probably one of the bleakest coming of age films ever made, so prepare yourself. Following a teenage girl abandoned by her mother and left to survive poverty, exploitation and loneliness alone, Lilya 4 ever carries the same unflinching look at addiction, trauma and vulnerability that makes Euphoria so difficult to shake.
Christiane F.
Where to watch: BFI Player rental, Apple TV rental and select Amazon rentals.
Before there was Rue, there was Christiane. Based on a true story, this cult German classic follows a thirteen-year-old girl as she falls into Berlin’s underground drug scene. It is raw, grimy and deeply upsetting – exactly the kind of film that captures how quickly teenage rebellion can become something far more dangerous.
Short Term 12
Where to watch: Rent on Prime Video, Apple TV and Sky Store.
Less visually chaotic but just as emotionally devastating, Short Term 12 centres on a group of vulnerable teenagers living in a residential care facility. Every character is carrying some kind of damage, and the film quietly explores how trauma shapes the way young people love, lash out and self-destruct. Brie Larson truly delivers a performance of a lifetime playing an empathetic supervisor as the facility. A personal favourite, because of its tender and deeply human portrayal of trauma. It shows that pain doesn’t look the same on everyone – people carry it in complicated ways and how they learn to survive them regardless of their age. The film show show important compassion can be and how important these authority figures are in helping children feel seen.
White Oleander
Where to watch: Available to rent digitally in the UK. If your favourite part of Euphoria is its broken mother-daughter dynamics, this one will ruin you. White Oleander follows a teenage girl pushed through a series of unstable foster homes after her mother is imprisoned. It is beautiful, unsettling and full of the same aching loneliness that sits underneath all of Euphoria’s glitter.
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