Here’s a list of films featuring abused adolescents and troubled teens. Note that I have not included horror movies featuring demonic children (like The Exorcist, The Omen, or Ju-On), nor have I included movies I believe to have little cinematic merit.

Note: an asterisk at the end of a list item identifies it as a highly recommended film.

All links are courtesy of IMDB, the Internet Movie Database.

• The Kid (1921) USA – Charlie Chaplin
• Dead End (1936) USA – William Wyler
• Tell Your Children “Reefer Madness” (1936) USA – Louis J. Gasnier
• Child Bride (1938) USA – Harry Revier
• I Bambini ci Guardano “The Children Are Watching Us” (1943) Italy – Vittorio De Sica
• Sciuscià “Shoeshine” (1946) Italy – Vittorio De Sica *
• Oliver Twist (1948) UK – David Lean
• Los Olvidados “The Young and the Damned” (1950) Mexico –
  Luis Buñuel *
• Jeux Interdits “Forbidden Games” (1952) France – René Clément *
• Blackboard Jungle (1955) USA – Peter Brooks
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955) USA – Nicholas Ray
• The Bad Seed (1956) USA – Mervyn LeRoy
• Les Quatre Cents Coups “The 400 Blows” (1959) France –
  Francois Truffaut *
• Lord of the Flies (1963) UK – Peter Brook *
• Children of the Damned (1964) UK – Anton M. Leader
• A Clockwork Orange (1971) UK – Stanley Kubrick *
• Pretty Baby (1973) USA – Louis Malle
• Pixote (1981) Brazil – Hector Babenko
• Rumble Fish (1983) USA – Francis Ford Coppola *
• The Outsiders (1983) USA – Francis Ford Coppola
• Street Wise (1984) USA – Martin Bell
• River’s Edge (1986) USA – Tim Hunter *
• Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) France – Louis Malle
• Heathers (1988) USA – Michael Lehmann
• Boyz N the Hood (1991) USA – John Singleton *
• My Own Private Idaho (1991) USA – Gus Van Sant
• Fresh (1992) USA – Boaz Yakin *
• Menace II Society (1993) USA – Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes *
• The Basketball Diaries (1995) USA – Scott Kalvert *
• Kids (1995) USA – Larry Clark *
• The Doom Generation (1995) USA – Gregg Araki
• Romeo + Juliet (1996) USA – Baz Luhrman
• Gummo (1997) USA – Harmony Korine
• American History X (1998) USA – Tony Kaye *
• Ratcatcher (1999) UK – Lynne Ramsay
• Battle Royale (2000) Japan – Kinji Fukasaku
• Bully (2001) USA – Larry Clark *
• Children Underground (2001) USA – Edet Belzberg
• Storytelling (2001) USA – Todd Solondz *
• Cidade de Deus “City of God” (2002) Brazil – Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund *
• Capturing the Friedmans (2003) USA – Andrew Jarecki *
• Elephant (2003) USA – Gus van Sant
• Thirteen (2003) USA – Catherine Hardwicke
• Mysterious Skin (2004) USA – Gregg Araki *
• Brick (2005) USA – Rian Johnson *
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) USA – Lynne Ramsey
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) USA – Benh Zeitlen *
• Beasts of No Nation (2015) Ghana – Cary Joji Fukunaga *
• The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) UK – Colm McCarthy *
• The Florida Project (2017) USA – Sean Baker
• Beautiful Boy (2018) UK – Felix van Groeningen