Beautiful Thing

Two teenage boys on a Thamesmead housing estate fall for each other while everything around them — bad flats, worse parents, the neighbour who only plays Mama Cass records — carries on regardless. It is small, it is council-estate specific, and it refuses the tragedy the decade usually demanded.

What makes it hold up is the mother. Sandra could have been an obstacle and is instead the best-written adult in any film on this list. The final scene, dancing in the courtyard where everyone can see, is the quiet ancestor of every teen coming-out story that came after.