Abstract
The purpose of the article is to present the images of adolescents in both foreign and Kazakh film productions through the prism of metamodernism. The introduction tells about the films covering the puberty period, in other words, “teen movies”, they are aimed at viewers of different generations, since we all come from childhood. In addition, through films about growing up, teenagers realize that everything is fine with them, they reflect, looking at their peers-movie characters. Methods. The following methods were used in this article: content analysis, comparative analysis, cultural approach and semiotic analysis. Discussion. Films produced in various countries reveal a multitude of stereotypical and unusual teenage characters – from the touching “nerd” to the rebellious troublemaker, from the romantic “Romeo” figure to the harassed outsider. In recent decades, these depictions have transcended the boundaries of strictly postmodern or modernist discourse and have come under the influence of metamodernism, which harmoniously combines sincerity and irony, past and future, intellectual reflection, and artistic experimentation. Results. Among the films about school, the younger generation, we can conditionally identify several common stereotypes, the main typical images of characters in films about teenagers. Their conditional division into the twelve most characteristic types is proposed: “the A-student”, “the rebel”, “the newcomer”, “the athlete”, “the high school queen”, “the disabled teenager”, “the silver spoon”, “the outsider”, “the leader”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “the Internet-obsessed teenager”, “the victim of circumstances”. Each archetype is examined through a metamodern lens, blending authentic emotional expression with self-reflexive irony. The example of films shows young heroes` dynamic modification and transformation in modern cinema. Main methods and key attributes of metamodernism, which were applied in the article are presented in the basic provisions. The analysis of twelve stereotypical teenage types and their metamodern evolution shows that modern cinema – both worldwide and in Kazakhstan – no longer confines itself to purely ironic or romantic perspectives on adolescence. Instead, a more complex system of oscillations emerges, enabling filmmakers to delve deeper into the inner life of youth confronted by globalization, technological advances, and social inequalities.