7 Quarterlife Crisis Movies You Should Definitely Revisit

Many movies depict the main character’s journey through a quarterlife crisis. Protagonists are often forced to reject their metamorphosis or accept the banalities of adulthood.

Here are some of the best of the “quarterlife crisis” films, a sub-genre often consisting of wandering male leads, pressures from friends and family, and absolutely killer soundtracks.

Watch and know that whatever form your crisis takes, you’re not alone.

Garden State (2004)

The quintessential quarter-life crisis film of the 2000s, Zach Braff starred in and directed this semi-autobiographical journey of a struggling actor’s return to his hometown after the death of his mother. He must face his hometown, clean up the the cobwebs of his past and attempt to glean what wisdom and experience he can to propel him forward. Sound familiar?

Streaming on Hulu and Disney+

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Oscar-nominated director Joachim Trier’s modern classic follows Julie, a young woman in Oslo stumbling through ambition and identity — and of course, the kind of messy relationships that only appear in your 20s — with the kind of restlessness that makes this stage of life feel both wide open and completely suffocating. As she drifts between various versions of herself, the film captures the particular panic of (sadly) realizing freedom does not automatically produce clarity.

Streaming on Tubi

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

The Coen brothers’ melancholy folk odyssey centers on Llewyn Davis (played by the brilliant Oscar Isaac), a gifted but chronically stuck musician wandering through New York’s Greenwich Village in the winter of 1961. Broke, grieving and sabotaging nearly every opportunity in front of him, Llewyn embodies the quarterlife fear that talent alone may not be enough to build a life. It is bleak and funny while remaining painfully familiar for anyone who has ever wondered whether they are chasing a calling or just stalling.

Streaming on Pluto TV+

Good Will Hunting (1997)

A prodigy from South Boston struggles with his own inadequacy and loyalties to his blue collar childhood friends. Guided by the counsel of a small-time psychologist, Will Hunting seeks to find a way to reconcile his past and define what “potential” means to him. Also, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Boston accents are worth the watch alone.

Streaming on Paramount+

Frances Ha (2012)

Noah Baumbach’s 2012 film features the guileless Frances Halladay, played by Greta Gerwig, whose crisis that sends her around the world in search of herself begins in the seemingly simplest of ways: her roommate decides to move out. We’ve all been there, am I right?

Streaming on Netflix and Tubi

Tommy Boy (1995)

There comes a time in every man’s life when he must stack up against the life of his father. For some, like our protagonist Tommy, it’s not a fair fight. With the family business in his hands, Tommy ventures out on the road to save the company and prove himself once and for all to dear ol’ dad.

Streaming on Pluto TV

Eighth Grade (2019)

Bo Burnham’s directorial debut may seem like an outlier here, but stick with us. Fourteen-year-old Kayla Day’s anxious march through middle school works as an origin story for the quarterlife crisis to come. Beneath the awkward silences, social media doomscrolls, YouTube pep talks and general social panic is a girl already learning how exhausting it is to become a person in public. It’s also a deeply compassionate reminder that uncertainty did not suddenly appear in adulthood. You just got used to it.

Rent on Amazon Prime