The Outsider: Loners, Misfits & Rebels

They never fit. That was the point.

Cinema has always had a soft spot for those who can't or won't conform. These films find the world from the margins — and what they see from there is often more honest than anything from the center.

Coming of Age Drama
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Created: September 4, 2025

The Collection

Ghost World

Ghost World

2001
1
Ghost World
2001
1
Ghost World
IMDb 7.3 / 10
Director Terry Zwigoff
Cast Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson
Box Office $6,217,849
Why Terry Zwigoff films Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson refusing graduation. The friendship is the f…
The Station Agent

The Station Agent

2003
2
The Station Agent
2003
2
The Station Agent
IMDb 7.6 / 10
Director Tom McCarthy
Cast Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale
Box Office $5,739,376
Why Tom McCarthy films Peter Dinklage's small Newark train enthusiast moving to a New Jersey depot. The…
Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude

1971
3
Harold and Maude
1971
3
Harold and Maude
IMDb 7.9 / 10
Director Hal Ashby
Cast Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Why Hal Ashby films a death-obsessed twenty-year-old falling in love with a seventy-nine-year-old Holoc…
Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite

2004
4
Napoleon Dynamite
2004
4
Napoleon Dynamite
IMDb 7.0 / 10
Director Jared Hess
Cast Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries
Box Office $44,540,956
Why Jared Hess films an Idaho high schooler whose moonwalk wins the student council vote. The film is d…
The Squid and the Whale

The Squid and the Whale

2005
5
The Squid and the Whale
2005
5
The Squid and the Whale
IMDb 7.3 / 10
Director Noah Baumbach
Cast Owen Kline, Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney
Box Office $7,372,734
Why Baumbach films a 1986 Brooklyn family's literary divorce. The sons are the rebels by inheritance; t…
Rushmore

Rushmore

1999
6
Rushmore
1999
6
Rushmore
IMDb 7.6 / 10
Director Wes Anderson
Cast Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams
Box Office $17,105,219
Why Wes Anderson films Max Fischer's expulsion from the title academy. The film is a fifteen-year-old's…
Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love

2002
7
Punch-Drunk Love
2002
7
Punch-Drunk Love
IMDb 7.3 / 10
Director Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Box Office $17,844,216
Why Paul Thomas Anderson gives Adam Sandler a sweet, rage-filled outsider's love story. The harmonium, …
Submarine

Submarine

2010
8
Submarine
2010
8
Submarine
IMDb 7.3 / 10
Director Richard Ayoade
Cast Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine
Box Office $467,602
Why Richard Ayoade films Oliver Tate's Welsh adolescence with Wes Anderson framing and a Welsh accent. …
Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl

2007
9
Lars and the Real Girl
2007
9
Lars and the Real Girl
IMDb 7.3 / 10
Director Craig Gillespie
Cast Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider
Box Office $5,972,884
Why Craig Gillespie films a small-town man who orders a sex doll and presents her as his girlfriend. Th…
About Schmidt

About Schmidt

2002
10
About Schmidt
2002
10
About Schmidt
IMDb 7.2 / 10
Director Alexander Payne
Cast Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney
Box Office $65,016,287
Why Alexander Payne films Jack Nicholson's retired Omaha actuary writing letters to a Tanzanian foster …
The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums

2002
11
The Royal Tenenbaums
2002
11
The Royal Tenenbaums
IMDb 7.6 / 10
Director Wes Anderson
Cast Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston
Box Office $52,364,010
Why Wes Anderson films three failed prodigy siblings and their estranged father. The film is the misfit…
Greenberg

Greenberg

2010
12
Greenberg
2010
12
Greenberg
IMDb 6.1 / 10
Director Noah Baumbach
Cast Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Box Office $4,234,170
Why Noah Baumbach films Ben Stiller's forty-year-old Brooklynite house-sitting in LA. The film is the m…
Withnail and I

Withnail and I

1987
13
Withnail and I
1987
13
Withnail and I
IMDb 7.5 / 10
Director Bruce Robinson
Cast Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths
Box Office $1,544,889
Why Bruce Robinson films two unemployed London actors retreating to a Lake District cottage in 1969. Th…

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