Best movies like Speech & Debate

Life is a stage. Find your voice. Change the world.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Speech & Debate Starring Liam James, Sarah Steele, Austin P. McKenzie, Janeane Garofalo, and more. If you liked Speech & Debate then you may also like: Watercolors, Welcome Home, Bobby, Wild Tigers I Have Known, The Wise Kids, Rocket Science and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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Watercolors

Carter, a troubled teen stays with a friend of his dads and starts flirting with her son Danny. After the weekend school returns, however Carter a school jock tells Danny he does not want to be seen with him at school. Their relationship grows outside school hours though & soon enough Danny falls in love with Carter & after Danny is attacked romance ensures, but can it last.

Welcome Home, Bobby

When a Chicago teen is arrested for drug possession, the ensuing investigation reveals that he has had sexual contact with an older man. Discovering his sexual encounter, other students start shunning him and call for his expulsion from school. His father as his conservative blue-collar dad also rejects him, while his mother does try to offer support.

Wild Tigers I Have Known

A lyrical telling of the coming of age of a 13-year-old boy who learns to cope with his new found sexuality and his unrequited love for the cool kid in school.

The Wise Kids

A vivid, dynamic Southern coming-of-age drama, takes place in the transitional space between high school and college, when life seems to be all questions and no answers, and the future is scarily wide open. Set in and around a Charleston, SC Baptist church, weaving through this ensemble piece are three main characters - Brea, an introspective pastor's daughter experiencing debilitating doubt, the hyperactive Laura, Brea's best friend and a devout believer, and Tim, the open-hearted son of a single father, confronting his homosexuality for the first time. Tensions and buried feelings abound, as colleges are chosen and adults behave badly, as Brea, Laura and Tim attempt to hang onto what they have, all the while yearning to break free.

Rocket Science

Hal is a 15-year-old high-school student with a minor yet socially alienating (and painful) disability: he stutters uncontrollably. Determined to work through the problem, Hal opts for an extreme route – he joins the school debating team, which sends him on a headfirst plunge into breakneck speech competitions and offers a much-needed boost toward correcting the problem.

Rollercoaster

In pursuit of fantasy, five teenagers hop the fence of a now defunct amusement park. While apparently a mindless diversion, for two of them the park is the setting for a more fatal bid at escape.

Beautiful Thing

Set during a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

The Breakfast Club

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Call Me by Your Name

In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father's research assistant.

Mom at Sixteen

Pregnant sixteen year old Jacey's well-meaning mother forces her to keep the birth a secret and decides to raise the baby as her own.

Common Ground

This movie contains three short stories dealing with the theme of homosexuality. In "A Friend of Dorothy", a woman joins the Navy during the 1950's and discovers lesbianism. In "Mr. Roberts", a teacher in a 1970's classroom struggles with his closeted gay status. Finally in "Amos and Andy", a father wrestles with his own emotional acceptance of a present day wedding between his son and another man.

Moonlight

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Get Real

Steven spends his school days longing for all-star athlete John. But John has a gorgeous girlfriend, and Steven is still in the closet about being gay. The only one who knows the teenager's secret is his friend Linda. After a curious run-in with John in a public restroom, Steven starts to wonder if the jock is straight after all. When they start a romance, it threatens to expose the truth about both of them.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.

Love, Simon

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it's a little more complicated: he's yet to tell his family or friends he's gay and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate he's fallen for online.

6.8 / 10 2010 Comedy
suggested by: user758klcvkmjr

Easy A

Olive, an average high school student, sees her below-the-radar existence turn around overnight once she decides to use the school's gossip grapevine to advance her social standing. Now her classmates are turning against her and the school board is becoming concerned, including her favorite teacher and the distracted guidance counselor. With the support of her hilariously idiosyncratic parents and a little help from a long-time crush, Olive attempts to take on her notorious new identity and crush the rumor mill once and for all.

Edge of Seventeen

1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.

FIT

Takes a look at gay and straight love among the new millennials. Everything from secret crushes to homophobic attitudes are revealed by the rambunctious students taking Drama and Dance from Loris. None of the teens are what they seem at first glance, with gay hearts lurking behind tough exteriors and straight kids expressing themselves in many ways.

Geography Club

A coming-of-age movie that tells a story unfolding in every high school around the country -- a story of kids hiding their true identities in plain sight, even as they feverishly pursue their hearts' desires.

I Killed My Mother

Hubert, a brash 17-year-old, is confused and torn by a love-hate relationship with his mother that consumes him more and more each day. After distressing ordeals and tragic episodes, Hubert will find his mother on the banks of Saint Lawrence river, where he grew up, and where a murder will be committed: the murder of childhood.

Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious is a coming-of-age story about an Asian-Canadian teenager who is torn between his girlfriend’s dreams of their future and his father’s ambition, all the while struggling with finding himself and following his own desires.

Circumstance

A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's newfound conservatism.

Slash

Freshman Neil's Vanguard stories are all he cares about...until he meets the older Julia, who pushes him to put his own fan fic online. When the website's moderator takes a special interest in Neil's work, it opens up a whole new universe.

1:54

Tim, a shy 16-year-old athlete with a natural gift for running, is dealing with the loss of his mother, as well as his sexuality. After a personal video is posted to social media, Tim's private life is about to explode into the public eye.

4.5 / 10 2006 Comedy Drama
suggested by: CrimsonCaiman

Fat Girls

A gay theater-obsessed Texan high school senior has his heart set on Broadway stardom with an eye out for love. With the help of his 300-pound best girl friend, he embarks on a winning journey of self-discovery.

Glue

A teenage summer in a small town in the desert, a dysfunctional family, a rock band, a can full of glue, two boys, one girl, loads of tongue kisses, dry heat, wind in Patagonia, existential angst... A teenage story in the middle of nowhere.

Last Summer

Luke and Jonah, two high school sweethearts, spend their final days together over the course of a long, quiet summer in the rural US South, contemplating their uncertain future and the uncertain future of the United States.

How to Deal

Halley is convinced true love doesn't exist based on the crazy relationships around her. Her mother is divorcing her father who is dating a younger woman Halley can't stand. Her crazed sister is planning a wedding but has second thoughts and her best friend has fallen madly in love for the first time leaving Halley to feel even more alone.

The Prom

After the PTA of a conservative high school in Indiana bans same-sex couples from attending the annual prom, a gang of flamboyant Broadway stars try to boost their image by showing up to support two lesbian students.

6.4 / 10 2004 Comedy
suggested by: user981twae85mf

Saved!

Mary is a good Christian girl who goes to a good Christian high school where she has good Christian friends and a perfect Christian boyfriend. Her life seems perfect, until the day that she finds out that her boyfriend may be gay — and that she’s pregnant.

Tru Loved

Recently relocated from San Francisco to conservative suburbia by her lesbian mothers, Tru struggles like all teens to fit in and find love, but her quest is complicated by sexual politics, closed minds, and closeted friends as she seeks to establish her school's first Gay-Straight Alliance.

More Than Only

A young gay man finds how to love himself and accept love from another, despite the disapproval of his father.

Innocent

17-year-old Eric follows his parents to immigrate to Canada and is thus forced to confront different emotional and cultural problems. He must not only adjust to the new environment, but also come to terms with his homosexuality. Standing at the brink of adulthood, he encounters a series of potential romantic interests - his handsome cousin, a schoolmate, a middle aged lawyer and finally a kitchen helper. They represent different stages in Eric's development, from infatuation, sex, love to a sense of responsibility.

Joe Bell

The true story of a small town, working class father who embarks on a solo walk across the U.S. to crusade against bullying after his son is tormented in high school for being gay.

Akron

Benny, a college freshman at the University of Akron, Ohio meets and falls for fellow freshman Christopher at a football game. With the support of their families and friends they embark on a new relationship. But a tragic event in the past involving their mothers soon comes to light and threatens to tear them apart.

Dream Boy

The story of Nathan, a young teenager who tries to flourish in a romantic relationship with neighbour Roy. The two young men will have to face the brutal reality of the rural south of the United States in the late 1970s.

Anderson's Cross

Nick Anderson, Kevin Daniels, and Tracey Green do everything together. They are the best of friends, and yet they couldn't be more different. Neighbors from adolescence, they finish each other's thoughts and sentences, joys and pains, happiness and tears. Using Nick's house as their own members only clubhouse, they escape into their own world of contentment. Yet the inevitable intrusion of others tests their stability in ways never imagined.

The Edge of Seventeen

Two high school girls are best friends until one dates the other's older brother, who is totally his sister's nemesis.

6.1 / 10 2010 Drama Comedy
suggested by: user114x7p260gl

Dirty Girl

When Danielle is banished to special education because of her misbehavior, she joins Clarke on a road trip to discover themselves.

First Girl I Loved

Seventeen-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her L.A. public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend, Clifton—who has always harbored a secret crush on her—he does his best to get in the way.

Blue Citrus Hearts

A first love could quite possibly be the last for Sam, a Memphis teenager coming to terms with the romantic feelings he harbors for his best friend, Julian. Will the love he feels for this boy guide him through his struggles with his abusive father, ignorant girlfriend, and suicidal thoughts -- or will the conflict that his love for Julian stirs throughout his life prove to be more than one boy can handle?

Boy Erased

Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.

The Truth About Jane

Jane, a high school teenager, tries to deal with the discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl who makes her discover her true sexuality, which is only the start of Jane's troubles when Jane's unaccepting mother, Janice, struggles with her surprising revelation of brought forth by her only daughter.

Henry Gamble's Birthday Party

Henry Gamble's Birthday Party takes place over 24 hours at the birthday pool party of 17-year-old preacher's kid Henry Gamble. The party guests include adults and teenagers from his church, as well as Henry's "secular" friends, including the closeted young Logan, who has eyes for Henry.

You Should Meet My Son!

A comedy about a conservative Southern mom who discovers that her only son is gay. Determined that he won’t go through life alone and miserable, she sets out to find him the perfect husband!

Get Your Stuff

A wealthy professional gay couple, who wish to adopt children, see their lives turned topsy turvy when they take in two misbehaving brothers.

The Christmas Setup

The story of New York lawyer Hugo who heads to Milwaukee with his best friend Madelyn to spend the holidays with his mom Kate, who is also in charge of the local Christmas celebrations. Ever the matchmaker, Kate arranges for Hugo to run into Patrick, Hugo’s high school friend and secret crush, who has recently returned after a successful stint in Silicon Valley. As they enjoy the local holiday festivities together, Hugo and Patrick’s attraction to each other is undeniable and it looks as though Kate’s Santa-style matchmaking is a success. But as Hugo receives word of a big promotion requiring a move to London, he must decide what is most important to him.

So Long Suburbia

One sleepless night as Sadie is surfing the web her suspicions that she and her bestie since the 7th grade are growing apart are confirmed, when she discovers that he has unfollowed her on Instagram. On her 17th birthday, her mother gifts her a 3 zone one-year transit pass telling her to “go out and explore, discover new things and have adventures close to home.” Downtown Sadie is randomly befriended by Miami, a self-identified teeny-bopper who is the first out trans girl to attend North Shore Private Girls College. Miami introduces Sadie to her token straight, musical theatre-loving BFF Cynthia, her angsty emo boyfriend Zeke, and the rest of her clique: Ellen, an astrology-loving lesbian and Jersey, a twinky bisexual high school dropout. Sadie quickly starts to hang out with them all on the regular, but has she really found a place where she belongs? Or will old insecurities, crushes and drama get in the way?

The Truth About Alex

Brad Stevens and Alex Prager are best friends. They are both popular high school students and key members of the football team. Brad is up for nomination to West Point, and Alex is a talented pianist who’s counting on his football skills to land him a university scholarship. But their lives are turned upside down when one day Alex admits that he is gay.

And Then Came Summer

A reunion of family and friends becomes an unforgettable vacation when two teenage boys discover their secret feelings toward one another. The relationship is eventually exposed to their families - leading to denial and a questioning of self-worth from each of the boys. The exposed relationship brings to light that one of the boys was previously institutionalized for his homosexuality by his older brother.

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