Curator Watchlist
A tender, funny, and quietly devastating coming-of-age film that balances childhood mischief with real grief and emotional instability. Its empathy for an awkward, imaginative boy and its lived-in rural setting make it a standout for viewers who like bittersweet human stories.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 1h 42m
Director: Lasse Hallström
Starring: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén
A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.
Lasse Hallström
Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén
A tender, funny, and quietly devastating coming-of-age film that balances childhood mischief with real grief and emotional instability. Its empathy for an awkward, imaginative boy and its lived-in rural setting make it a standout for viewers who like bittersweet human stories.
My Life as a Dog is one of those rare coming-of-age films that feels both delicate and emotionally sturdy. It understands how children use imagination to survive pain, and it treats Ingemar’s misbehavior, loneliness, and tenderness with real compassion rather than judgment.
What makes it linger is the tonal balance: the film is often very funny, but the humor never cancels out the sadness underneath it. The rural Swedish setting, the episodic structure, and Anton Glanzelius’s remarkably natural performance give it the feeling of a memory you can almost touch.
It’s a film about loss, resilience, and the strange ways kids make sense of adult suffering. If you like your coming-of-age stories bittersweet rather than sentimental, this is an easy recommendation.
Iman Vellani (4.5★) · 619 likes
This was my high school drama teacher’s favourite film, and when I watched to impress him, I told him that I, too, loved this film. If I’m being frank, however, ain’t NO way fake ass 14 year old me understood why this was so great soooooo upon revisiting 8 years later, here are my findings: - Movie makes for affordable contraception. - Movie delivers some of the most innocent and empathetic performances I’ve seen in a while. - Movie somehow encourages… more
Sean Baker · 245 likes
A revisit after three decades that felt like a first time watch. I found it much funnier than I remember. It's interesting how the events and situations become more amusing as Ingemar's life becomes more unstable. Incredible child performance by Anton Glanzelius Arrow Academy Blu-ray: - Come On Then! (Kom igen, nu'rå!), a 1981 TV film by Hallström about a 35-year-old footballer (played by Swedish pop star Robert Broberg) looking back over his life- Original theatrical trailer- Reversible… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 174 likes
ON THE ROAD: SWEDEN - LAND OF THE TALL, THE SOUNDS, IKEA, ABBA & THE ICE HOTEL The 80s and 90s were filled with these very offbeat yet interesting coming-of-age stories. Not that they have fully disappeared, but they are never at the same quantity or level as they used to be. On this Academy Award-nominated film (Best Director/Adapted Screenplay), we follow the life of a very colorful, strange kid with an affinity for his dog who’s sent to live with… more
Marcy Webb (4.5★) · 130 likes
Floyd is obviously a trans boy and Ingemar is extremely gay for him and nobody can convince me otherwise
upik (4★) · 123 likes
simple coming of age but it really hits. it’s sad, but told in a light, sometimes funny way. kinda shows life can be messy, but you just deal with it your own way.
A deeply humane portrait of a boy finding dignity and escape through a fragile bond with a bird, with the same mix of tenderness and hardship.
A foundational coming-of-age film about a misunderstood boy navigating neglect, mischief, and emotional abandonment.
Shares a child’s-eye view of a chaotic world, mixing dark humor, trauma, and surreal emotional intensity.
A sensitive, devastating look at boyhood innocence under pressure, with quiet emotional power.
For viewers drawn to childhood solitude, imagination, and the ache of growing up around adult sorrow.
A compassionate, episodic character study that values observation, vulnerability, and emotional drift.
A classic youth film about friendship, loss, and the moment innocence gives way to harder truths.
A melancholic small-town portrait where adolescence and loneliness are inseparable from the setting.
A child-centered film that finds suspense and humanity in small errands and everyday obstacles.
Gentle, lyrical, and rooted in a child’s perspective on family, memory, and belonging.
A visually rich child’s adventure that turns isolation into wonder and emotional connection.
Not a childhood film, but it shares the same plainspoken empathy for hardship and family strain.
coming of age, childhood resilience, grief and illness, family instability, imagination as coping, rural life, bittersweet humor, emotional neglect
coming-of-age, bittersweet, Swedish cinema, childhood, grief, family drama, dramedy, rural setting, 1980s, art-house