'Growing Pains' Review: A Slow-Burn Coming-of-Age Story With Heart
- Romey Norton
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
By Romey Norton- September 30, 2025
Coming-of-age dramas can often fall into nostalgia or clichés, but Growing Pains sets itself apart with honesty. It shows adolescence not as a glossy montage of locker rooms and first kisses but as a confusing, painful process filled with missteps, silences, and difficult truths.
What Is Growing Pains About?
Directed by Catherine Argyrople, the film follows two childhood best friends, Zoe and Natalia, standing at the crossroads between middle and high school. As they struggle with shifting identities, emerging sexualities, and the painful drift of a once-unbreakable bond, they also confront deeper questions of survival, with a particular focus on the aftermath of battling cancer.
By incorporating the aftermath of cancer survival, the story adds another layer of fragility: growing up isn’t just about hating your braces and body and gossiping, but learning coping skills and how to navigate your relationships and career.
The leads embody both the sweetness of shared history and the bitterness of growing apart. Catherine Argyrople’s direction gives them space to breathe, letting emotions grow. That being said, it’s still a lot of teen drama that you’ll either find endearing and nostalgic or cringey. The film is definitely for teen/young-adult viewers who will find plenty to relate to.
Deanna Tarraza is cute and fiery as Natalia, and Molly Morneweck as Zoe is quietly impressive. Their chemistry helps anchor the story, but sometimes their acting feels a little forced and lacks depth. The supporting cast helps drive the story, but their acting is subpar.
Argyrople leans into realism, using grounded cinematography and naturalistic dialogue. Some may find the pacing slow, but it reflects the way adolescence often feels: heavy, stretched, and uncertain. It’s a film that lingers rather than rushes, asking the audience to sit still and absorb everything happening - something audiences are struggling with in recent years.
As the story continued, I was craving a little more drama and intensity. The film keeps a solid pace, but some may disengage. The sound is also a little off, sometimes too quiet, sometimes too loud, but for an Indie film, overall, the film is very polished.
Is Growing Pains worth watching?
Growing Pains is not the kind of coming-of-age story that ties things up neatly. Instead, it leaves viewers with the ache of adolescence. It’s tender and raw, occasionally difficult to watch, but always truthful. Overall, this film is a brave, unflinching coming-of-age drama that captures the messy, painful, and transformative reality of growing up.
Growing Pains had its world premiere at the 2024 Boston International Film Festival and will be released on VOD (Tubi) on November 7, 2025.
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