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Breakfast Club was on a couple days ago

I realized it was a really bad movie. The way they switch from saying nasty things to each other, then they seem at least okay with one another. Claire wants Bender in the end??? Under all those clothes - black coat and sweater - Alison has on a frilly white shirt?

by Anonymousreply 110January 20, 2022 10:15 AM

Claire wanted a fling with a large nostril bad boy. She ended it by handing him a d7amond earring when she was finished with him.shit movie, influential in a bad way.

by Anonymousreply 1January 17, 2022 3:06 PM

One of the most overrated films ever

by Anonymousreply 2January 17, 2022 3:09 PM

Haha, I seriously thought OP was talking about the radio show in New York.

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by Anonymousreply 3January 17, 2022 3:21 PM

It’s fine. Not great or bad, a perfectly fine teen movie.

by Anonymousreply 4January 17, 2022 3:23 PM

You're so conceited, Claire.

by Anonymousreply 5January 17, 2022 3:26 PM

I didn't get the diabetes sandwich thing though. Did people really eat shit like that in the 80s?

by Anonymousreply 6January 17, 2022 3:29 PM

It's very cliche and typical of the 80s. It works as a feel-good movie about adolescence. But nothing about it is realistic and all the characters are stereotypes. It's one of John Hughes' best films though and aged better than Sixteen Candles.

by Anonymousreply 7January 17, 2022 3:32 PM

Bender was sexy and from the wrong side of the tracks. Of course Claire, who loved angering her parents, would go for him. The puzzle is why he was interested in her?

by Anonymousreply 8January 17, 2022 3:34 PM

There's no deal, Sport-O

by Anonymousreply 9January 17, 2022 3:36 PM

I get it's a movie and we're supposed to suspend disbelief but Molly Ringwald was so plain looking and her characters were whiny and sulky. I can't believe Bender or Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles would go for her. Then when I found out John Hughes had a crush on Molly, it made sense.

by Anonymousreply 10January 17, 2022 3:36 PM

[quote]I didn't get the diabetes sandwich thing though. Did people really eat shit like that in the 80s?

Yes, R6. It was very common. 🙄

Did you realize it was the weird girl who did that? Do you have any understanding of context when you watch a movie?

by Anonymousreply 11January 17, 2022 3:39 PM

What was the "diabetes sandwich"?

by Anonymousreply 12January 17, 2022 3:40 PM

OP needs to Eat. My. Shorts.

by Anonymousreply 13January 17, 2022 3:43 PM

This, R12.

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by Anonymousreply 14January 17, 2022 3:45 PM

I hate that the nude scenes were cut, they would have made the whole thing seem more realistic.

by Anonymousreply 15January 17, 2022 3:45 PM

Molly was super cute

by Anonymousreply 16January 17, 2022 3:46 PM

Like many film directors, John Hughes was a complete geek in high school who wanted to be part of the cool crowd and get hot babes. His movies reflect his fantasy. Weird Science especially so.

by Anonymousreply 17January 17, 2022 3:47 PM

Loved Weird Science

by Anonymousreply 18January 17, 2022 3:48 PM

Did somebody say "breakfast"?

by Anonymousreply 19January 17, 2022 3:51 PM

It was really good.

Ally Sheedy should have been nominated for Supporting Actress.

by Anonymousreply 20January 17, 2022 3:54 PM

This was the first movie I saw in a theater where I came out of it feeling like seeing it had changed me somehow. Which sounds very MARY! but it was more, wow, someone actually captured a part of my life.

I recognized a lot of what was shown in Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. I don't disagree that they maybe aren't classics for the ages, and there are, yes, problematic parts to those movies (like: Ally Sheedy's character had to be changed instead of just appreciating her as she was) but I thought the performances were decent.

Molly was cute but in some ways the poster above is right, she's also a bit plain. But she reminded me of the girls in my HS that ruled the hallways. It was the money, the fussiness, the clothes, the dismissiveness. It wasn't always physical aggressiveness or sheer beauty that landed these girls in the drivers' seat. It was more of an attitude.

In many ways, even though I was a shy gayling, I was Ally Sheedy pre-makeover 😎

But we had a Bender and a dude wrestler who acted like that. There's a reason it resonated with so many.

by Anonymousreply 21January 17, 2022 3:59 PM

I was on a long flight a couple of weeks ago and they actually had this in the video library. I watched it and I still thinks it's good. I say in in the late 90s as a teen, but I think the message is actually more important today. If we could just accept that at the end of the day, we are all a princess, a basket case, a criminal, a nerd, and a joke, maybe we wouldn't have this identity war happening. I am anti-woke, but the treatment and harassment of Clair was pretty hardcore in retrospect.

Also, when I watched The Breakfast Club, while I still enjoyed it, it shows how dependent movies in the 80's were on having a killer soundtrack or mainstream hit. It really amplifies the movie.

by Anonymousreply 22January 17, 2022 4:05 PM

[quote] anti-woke

You just had to smear your dirty asshole on this otherwise peaceful thread, didn't you?

by Anonymousreply 23January 17, 2022 4:06 PM

The outfit Claire wore was an expensive Ralph Lauren ensemble Ringwald saw in shop window. Hard to believe that it costs so much money to look so frumpy.

by Anonymousreply 24January 17, 2022 4:10 PM

R20 please tell me you are kidding. Best part of the movie perhaps, but in no way did it warrant a best supporting actor Oscar

by Anonymousreply 25January 17, 2022 4:13 PM

[quote] You just had to smear your dirty asshole on this otherwise peaceful thread, didn't you?

I shouldn't have phrased it like that. What I meant is that I am usually able to put something in context based on the time and place it occurs, not holding it up to todays social standards. But I was bothered about how they treated her, even Aly Sheedy joining in on the virginity question.

by Anonymousreply 26January 17, 2022 4:14 PM

This movie is like watching a really bad play put on by the high school drama department. Rather cringey.

by Anonymousreply 27January 17, 2022 4:17 PM

[quote] The puzzle is why he was interested in her?

A popular princess with decent tits. Isn't that the ideal for many straighto teen boys?

by Anonymousreply 28January 17, 2022 4:17 PM

Ringwald is not a Pam Anderson type. Or even a Jennifer Connelly type.

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by Anonymousreply 29January 17, 2022 4:26 PM

I was totally captivated by Molly Ringwald at that time, crazy about her red hair, her freckles, her bumble bee lips, she's cute, adorable and sexy! I would have done a 3 way with Molly and Judd Nelson. True.

by Anonymousreply 30January 17, 2022 4:26 PM

Princess Molly Ringwald, Teen Movie Queen, little Miss Heartbreaker.

by Anonymousreply 31January 17, 2022 4:29 PM

Most straight teen boys wouldn't tolerate a stuckup princess unless she was actually hot as fuck. Molly could get laid obviously but that hot guy would not stick around when there's plenty of blonde bimbos with nicer personalities.

by Anonymousreply 32January 17, 2022 4:29 PM

The setting was some fictional Chicago North Shore high school. How "wrong side of the tracks" could Bender really be?

by Anonymousreply 33January 17, 2022 4:30 PM

R30 No, honey, you didn't want to fuck her pussy, you wanted to HAVE IT.

by Anonymousreply 34January 17, 2022 4:35 PM

The red hair, BMW driving/riding, rich girl was the total thing though in the 80's. Molly was pretty but not smoking hot which makes her fuckable to guys and accessible to girls.

I thought it far fetched that Claire would suddenly make out w/ Bender leaning against her dads car and then give him one of her diamonds. The dad must be completely cuckold.

Also, circling back to the question they asked, do we think they will all still be friends on Monday or do you think it will play out as they predicted?

by Anonymousreply 35January 17, 2022 4:42 PM

Was taping boys' butt cheeks together a common eighties jock thing?

by Anonymousreply 36January 17, 2022 4:48 PM

[quote] Claire wants Bender in the end???

FWIW, Ringwald interestingly disagreed with this decision and vocally opposed it. She vehemently maintained, even to Hughes in 1-1 talks, that Brian would have been the better and more realistic endgame for Claire, and that it made no sense and had no payoff for Claire to choose Bender.

It’s generally accepted that Molly wanted this outcome (or at least, she campaigned for it) because she was dating Anthony Michael-Hall at the time of filming, and she wanted to maintain the integrity or keep the peace in that relationship. Outside of that, tho ugh, I think her idea makes more sense to progress the story and change the characters on their trajectory, and seems more in-keeping with the general message—I think she had a very good point.

As another poster pointed out; for Claire, dating Bender is a cliché shock-the-proles move, to scare her parents a little and to impress her friends with a bit of calculated risk-taking for cool points. It’s not about her liking much less loving Bender for who he is—and why would she? Bender spent the better part of a weekend belittling, insulting, minimising, and shaming/judging Claire, often for things beyond her control, and never once apologised or showed remorse. He even badmouths and mocks her behind her back to other characters. Any moves he makes toward ameliorating himself to her come transparently from his desire to have sex with her, and nothing more. Claire for her part is shown to be intelligent and aware as popular bitches go, and she sees through Bender. So the only reason for her to accept his advances must have been strategic or purely sexual. She goes with him for reasons of popularity and social status, just in a different way for her. There’s still cachet going with a bad boy, even if he does look like a homeless thirty-year old.

To date Brian the Brain, however, would have entailed Claire ceding a good part of her popularity and curated image, for no obvious gain to herself. Overlooking the troubling revelation of the gun in his locker, Brian might be considered a very good long-term prospect as a dating partner, given his conscientiousness and his predicted career track and his loyalty among other qualities. But teens by their nature only think in the short-term (they haven’t the lived experience to do anything else), and it is sadly undeniable that in the short-term, the middle-class socially-inept dweeb Brian would have meant social suicide for Claire. So to date Brian therefore would have proved that she truly believed in a new concept of social equality and acceptance beyond her class status; that she liked and cared for someone beyond what they could do for her image (or her pussy).

This argument for Brian also goes for Allison, but there’s no way any mid-80s popcorn flick would ever have featured a couple of lesbians as the main characters with a real plausible story arc, so we must sadly put that possibility aside as well.

[quote] Under all those clothes - black coat and sweater - Alison has on a frilly white shirt?

Forcing Allison into that people-pleasing princess getup was nothing more than lesbian futch erasure, to make the conformist straights more comfortable at the end.

Allison & Andrew were clearly both unconventional babygays still coming to terms with themselves and their emergent sexualities, which is likely why they found so much comfort in each other’s company. If you watch both characters with a close eye, there’s very little that may be construed as sexual or romantic about their friendship. They like one another and are slightly fascinated by one another in a mirror-image sort of way, but there’s no spark there.

by Anonymousreply 37January 17, 2022 4:49 PM

I've always thought this movie was overrated, but I've come to really despise it. In addition to the criticisms already in here, that fucking atrocious line: "When you get old, your heart... dies." Such a bullshit boomer line, and coward Hughes put it in the mouth of a Gen Xer.

by Anonymousreply 38January 17, 2022 4:52 PM

[quote] Under all those clothes - black coat and sweater - Alison has on a frilly white shirt?

OK, this was bothering me too. I think not. When they are all revealing their bags/wallets, Claire says something about never throwing anything away. I could see her character maybe an extra little top in her purse, especially since the bags seemed so big in the 80's. Also Bender uses Clair's brow brush on his nasty teeth. I think she would have tossed the brush, but she uses it on Allison's brows in the ending.

Maybe Bender and Clair don't actually date. Maybe it was a moment, and the diamond is a way to say "don't forget about me" as she drives off. I could see Andrew w/ Allison in terms of getting laid, but not as a real couple. Brian seemed way younger than the rest of the cast and I don't think it would have made sense to pair him and Clair. He seems like a freshman to her junior or senior.

by Anonymousreply 39January 17, 2022 4:59 PM

Loved this movie as a kid and would watch it whenever it came on TV. Rewatched it about a year or two ago and found the whole thing sort of silly and bizarre. There were still moments that worked and moved me, but as a whole, it was a depressing rewatch.

Not as depressing as Sixteen Candles. That's another one I saw 100 times as a kid and recently rewatched and was horrified by. I'm not against "fag" being used in a movie when it's by a dumb jock or bully character, but when the lead character you're supposed to be pulling for uses it, it sours the whole experience. At that point, I was hoping everyone would keep forgetting her birthday and she'd find Jake behind the school dumpster fucking one of his jock friends.

by Anonymousreply 40January 17, 2022 5:12 PM

Ha!

I loved it when it came out when I was sixteen, but no fucking way would I watch it now

by Anonymousreply 41January 17, 2022 5:13 PM

Simple Minds is what makes this movie - the opening sequence is one of my favorite scenes and I also like when they are running from the principal and that song.

by Anonymousreply 42January 17, 2022 5:18 PM

Both "Don't You..." and Keith Forsey's Love Theme are still faves of mine.

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by Anonymousreply 43January 17, 2022 5:20 PM

The power ranking of Hughes movies from best to worst imo:

1. PRETTY IN PINK (problematic in places but still top tier when it comes to camp appeal and storyline)

2. SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL (would have been top if they had made Watts a dyke who rejected Keith as a love interest at the end, but they chickened out)

3. THE BREAKFAST CLUB (meh and sort of stupid, as this thread establishes, but still enjoyable in places)

4. SIXTEEN CANDLES (egregious)

5. ST. ELMO’S FIRE (there are no words for how appalling this shitshow is, 0/10, burn all copies of it)

by Anonymousreply 44January 17, 2022 5:23 PM

Yeah, breakfast club is good because it holds up WAY better than Saint Elmo’s. Also, it was the inspiration for a ton of other things later

by Anonymousreply 45January 17, 2022 5:29 PM

Wasnt the St Elmo’s Fire theme song originally written for the Special Olympics? Or is that just an urban legend?

It is interesting to see Judd Whatshisname and Ally Sheedy play a Georgetown yuppie couple in contrast to their roles in Breakfast Club

by Anonymousreply 46January 17, 2022 5:30 PM

reading some of the responses in this thread, it's easy to see why the younger generations id themselves with mental illnesses or as trigendered animals.

by Anonymousreply 47January 17, 2022 5:35 PM

I imagine Claire would have become into a goopy type

by Anonymousreply 48January 17, 2022 5:46 PM

Always hated all of those Cunt Pack movies. So dated and don’t hold up well at all.

by Anonymousreply 49January 17, 2022 5:46 PM

[quote] I imagine Claire would have become into a goopy type

Yes, absolutely. She was eating sushi in the Midwest in the 80s!

by Anonymousreply 50January 17, 2022 5:49 PM

Molly was absolutely not plain looking, especially next to Ally Sheedy, who really was plain. The bee-stung lips and short, bottle red hairdo were iconic. There was no other teen starlet who looked like her.

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by Anonymousreply 51January 17, 2022 5:58 PM

She looked interesting but to me she was not this drop dead gorgeous Brooke shields type.

by Anonymousreply 52January 17, 2022 6:05 PM

St Elmo’s want a John Hughes film. His best was Trains Planes and Automobiles

by Anonymousreply 53January 17, 2022 6:12 PM

The Brook Shields drop dead types can be generic and boring. There were a lot of Brook Shieldses.

by Anonymousreply 54January 17, 2022 6:19 PM

Loved it then,love it now. You cant watch these things thru modern sensibilities. When I watch it my mind is young again,and I enjoy that. As for "when you get old,your heart dies " , truer words were never spoken. Who here has the same heart they did 30-40 years ago ? We all "harden our hearts" for lack of a better phrase. Its inevitable in this world.

by Anonymousreply 55January 17, 2022 6:25 PM

Molly's styling and hair looks so much better on the movie poster/ @ R43.

by Anonymousreply 56January 17, 2022 6:30 PM

As a gayling - today, I am obsessed with Emilio's bulging package in this film. Obviously he is wearing tight briefs and jeans, maybe he is all balls. Even as kid under 10 I remember salivating over it and it still look good today. Sidetone - Young Jason Priestly also had a great package in jeans.

by Anonymousreply 57January 17, 2022 6:32 PM

I sat at the same table as Ally Sheedy at a benefit a few years ago. She was very friendly, obsessively chewing nicotine gum (she announced it) and stole the wine from those sitting on either side of her. I loved her!

by Anonymousreply 58January 17, 2022 7:14 PM

I definitely believed “when you get old, your heart dies" in high school and still do, which is how I became kind of a crunchy granola, hippy-dippy adult.

by Anonymousreply 59January 17, 2022 7:17 PM

I always thought Brian was a homo, I mean, "girlfriend in Canada..." oldest trick in the book!

Molly Ringwald herself has said there's at least one character in every John Hughes movie that can be read as gay but this was subconcious on the part of the clueless Hughes. Duckie in Pretty in Pink is an obvious one, as was Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller to me...

by Anonymousreply 60January 17, 2022 7:20 PM

I guess I’m in the minority here, I love Sixteen Candles to this day and prefer it over TBC.

by Anonymousreply 61January 17, 2022 7:20 PM

Claire was sheer sophisticated, worldly class. She was eating sushi lunches lite-years before other teenagers.

by Anonymousreply 62January 17, 2022 7:23 PM

[quote]Alison has on a frilly white shirt?

To match the frilly white flakes of dandruff she "snowed" all over her drawing.

by Anonymousreply 63January 17, 2022 7:23 PM

R42 the best part about that is Simple Minds—especially Jim Kerr—were reluctant to record the song, but the money and exposure was too good to pass up.

Simple Minds are such a fantastic band btw. I own several of their records, and frequently listen to their back catalogue online. The Scottish in general boast many fabulous bands, but SM are firmly in the top of the pantheon.

Mary! me, but some of their songs make me cry. They have so many beautiful, haunting, high-concept and experimental electropop cuts that almost no-one has heard.

Hope they get their deserved HOF dues one day.

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by Anonymousreply 64January 17, 2022 7:26 PM

I saw Molly Ringwald (with Neil Patrick Harris) in Cabaret on Broadway.

Jealous?

by Anonymousreply 65January 17, 2022 7:33 PM

‘Street Fighting Years’ is the most lush and heartbreaking ballad written by Simple Minds. Just timeless, gorgeous, and achingly sad. It would have been just as beautiful and moving released in 1985 as it was in 2002.

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by Anonymousreply 66January 17, 2022 7:35 PM

Re the conversation about Claire's hotness....I don't think anyone implied she was the hottest girl at school. After all, it was Sixteen Candles where the two beefy jocks work out, and when Jake asks the other dude what he thinks of her, he says, "She's not ugly, just....void."

But both a thug like Bender and a jock like whatever the fuck Emilio's character was named would find Claire worth attention. At least they did then. Attractive and a brain.

Of course porn and social media have really fucked the perceptions of anyone under 40, and most young str8 guys would fuck a woman with the face of a rottweiler if she had huge tits, a 24 inch waist and a fat ass.

by Anonymousreply 67January 17, 2022 7:37 PM

[quote] To match the frilly white flakes of dandruff she "snowed" all over her drawing.

I let out the nelliest scream when I saw Allison throw the baloney up on the ceiling in the theater.

by Anonymousreply 68January 17, 2022 7:37 PM

[quote] both a thug like Bender and a jock like whatever the fuck Emilio's character was named would find Claire worth attention. At least they did then. Attractive and a brain. Of course porn and social media have really fucked the perceptions of anyone under 40.

Exactly. Straight men are pigs and horndogs who aren’t that picky, and the beauty/sexual norms at the time were so different to nowadays.

Quirky, friendly and attainable women who are also charismatic and a bit aloof and somewhat eye-catching perennially do well at attracting people, and Molly is one such woman. You could imagine that her curiosity and spunk and intelligence would be fun in bed, and that she would have standards and play a bit hard to get at first, but once you were in go a little wild (redheads, you know what they say...). The point is that she stands out in a crowd, and has her own firecracker style and vibe going on, apart from the generic blonde beach-babe clones who are hot but a dime a dozen.

This is the thrust of ‘Pretty In Pink’, wherein Ringwald catches the attention of sexy badboy prepster James Spader, as well as bland WASP Andrew McCartthy. We believe that someone like Spader’s Steff, who seems to be fucking at least a few Plastics and tanned rich girl hotties, would lust Ringwald’s Andie, because she’s a flavour all her own that he can’t get elsewhere.

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by Anonymousreply 69January 17, 2022 7:48 PM

The only Hughes movies I ever really liked were Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller. I disliked Pretty in Pink because I really felt like it was a bit fake in places.

R44 St Elmo's Fire IS abysmal, true. But it's not John Hughes - that was Joel Schumacher.

by Anonymousreply 70January 17, 2022 7:55 PM

I still love Sixteen Candles though I understand why it’s considered full on problematic. So many small funny scenes.

by Anonymousreply 71January 17, 2022 7:58 PM

I am a “Jones” generation kid and I’ve always felt “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” captured the teen experience of the era more so than John Hughes (and I went to high school on the east coast.)

by Anonymousreply 72January 17, 2022 8:10 PM

I watched this too many times as a kid, I won't waste my time now. The lunch scene and the letter they leave for the dean is worthwhile but everything else? No.

by Anonymousreply 73January 17, 2022 8:36 PM

Exactly R57 - why is everyone talking about the girls when there's Emilio in those tight jeans? Not just the package, but the little round butt, too.

by Anonymousreply 74January 17, 2022 8:54 PM

Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying? You know, violently? And wonder, like, what would be the most horrible way to die?

Well for me, the worst way would be for a bunch of old men to get around me, and start biting and eating me alive.

by Anonymousreply 75January 17, 2022 8:55 PM

R74 maybe because it is a plot point that the character Emilio played was bullying some weaker and less masculine boy? Kind of a sore sub for a lot of posters here.

by Anonymousreply 76January 17, 2022 8:56 PM

Don’t forget Emilio’s meaty thighs!

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by Anonymousreply 77January 17, 2022 9:14 PM

R73 Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?

by Anonymousreply 78January 17, 2022 9:20 PM

Fast Times and Heathers are probably my favorite 80's teen movies. There's a realism to Fast Times I always appreciated and knew it was different at the time and Heathers is just so damn funny in the most twisted way. I enjoyed a lot of the John Hughes movies as a kid, but rewatches have made me less positive towards them. I still like some of his non-teen films like Home Alone.

The line about how when you get old, your heart dies is a really terrific and truthful line, though. Powerful to this day. I've known so many people who changed for the worse from their youth to their 30's-50's. People forget how to enjoy life. They think keeping up with the Joneses is going to make them happy or having the best kids and living in the best neighborhood. There's such sadness to it. Most of those people will never admit they're deeply unhappy.

by Anonymousreply 79January 17, 2022 9:24 PM

Though Anthony-Michael Hall is an angry fruitloop liability these days, apparently he and Molly still speak and are on good terms (at least in his view, anyway), and their cute teen romance from back in the day is something they look upon fondly. Awww.

[quote] In 2020, Anthony Michael Hall opened up about his relationship with '80s "It" girl, Molly Ringwald, per Page Six. Hall admitted that he and his "Breakfast Club" co-star did have a romantic relationship shortly after filming the iconic movie. Although it didn't las long, he looks back on his young romance with fond memories. "It was puppy love," he said. "She didn't have the time of day for me when we made 'Sixteen Candles.' We did 'Sixteen Candles,' and I was annoying to her ... but it was fun," the actor added.

[quote] In 2018, Ringwald wrote a piece for The New Yorker, where she revealed that scenes from her classic films would be offensive and inappropriate today, like when Hall's character on "The Breakfast Club" took a peak under Ringwald's character's dress. Hall admitted that he didn't read the article, but that he agrees with the sentiment. "I think in that time, they were done in a good-spirited way. It wasn't meant to offend, but I think as time has gone by, absolutely," he said.

[quote] In addition, Hall revealed his feelings about Ringwald today, saying that they've remained friends since their days as young stars. "She's wonderful, a great lady. We've been friends since and I've seen her plenty over the years."

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by Anonymousreply 80January 18, 2022 12:14 AM

Aw that’s very sweet.

by Anonymousreply 81January 18, 2022 12:21 AM

Judd Nelson is hot? What, where? Always thought he was repulsive.

St Elmos fire is my favourite of the Brat Pack movies. It’s so bad it’s good.

by Anonymousreply 82January 18, 2022 12:46 AM

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is timeless. As is Dazed and Confused (early 90s I knowO. Both capture the mundanity of high school well almost to a documentary view. Heathers was a hilarious dark parody of John Hughes formula. River's Edge was another good dark portrayal of adolescent ennui.

John Hughes movies were wish fulfillment and idealized school life. Good lighthearted entertainment but reflective of the general conservative era. A lot of his characters felt more out of the 1950s than 1980s to me.

The Breakfast Club was definitely his best, it was cliche but everything just clicked. The cast had great chemistry and it was a quintessential teen flick. Ferris Bueller's Day Off was also very entertaining. Ferris is such a little douchebag and awful friend and brother. Cameron and Ferris's sister Jeanie are the most sympathetic characters. Sixteen Candles did not age well in some ways, Molly's character is completely unlikable and boring. I was however amused by Anthony Michael Hall's nerd character trying to court Molly. Jake Ryan was very attractive and charming. The homophobic slurs (from the main character), date rape jokes and the racist Chinese student caricature was not funny at all and took me out. Weird Science is my guilty pleasure, I liked the homoeroticism in it.

by Anonymousreply 83January 18, 2022 12:55 AM

I used to love the Weird Science tv series more. And it's way more homoerotic than the movie.

by Anonymousreply 84January 18, 2022 12:59 AM

I was the unpopular princess in high school. I was rich, hot, but was gay with a bitchy personality - I was an unpopular Claire with no friends. Who were you?

by Anonymousreply 85January 18, 2022 3:28 AM

I remember these movies being bigger hits with the junior high/middle school kids, than with the high school students. I remember my older siblings and their friends thinking they were silly, whereas my junior high friends and I thought they were great and we identified with the characters, or wanted to.

R37 I always thought Claire couldn't stand the idea of being outed as a virgin, and went for Bender because he clearly wasn't one. She probably thought Brian wouldn't know what to do.

R80 I scrolled down to the "where are they know" part of the article, and Jesus Fucking Christ, seeing a young John Cusack brought back so many lustful memories. I wanted him badly when he played Lloyd Dobler in "Say Anything".

by Anonymousreply 86January 18, 2022 4:55 AM

r85 either Allison or Bender... hiding behind freakdom, attitude and acting out because of social circumstances and environment while also being from the wrong side of the tracks and it being more of an issue with the adults, staff, than my peers that were largely just following their social cues.

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by Anonymousreply 87January 18, 2022 9:40 AM

r86 the freak to the jock, the princess to the criminal.... it's a jungian match of opposites. It's matches that would theoretically promote growth because their archetypes break down the defenses of the other, eliminating their bs. it's hardly a wonder people hate the matches in the era of living your truth vs having to confront one's mirror.

brian could be queer coded but also likely to represent the eternal child.

brining a gun to school because of frustrations over woodshop to allegedly kill himself. . . yeah, don't think he's ready for dating yet.

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by Anonymousreply 88January 18, 2022 9:52 AM

How dare you - that’s one of my favorite movies

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by Anonymousreply 89January 18, 2022 9:53 AM

John Cusack was attractive in the 80s and 90s. His looks went to shit by the 2000s though. I guess karma for being an asshole. He has a very interesting body of work.

by Anonymousreply 90January 18, 2022 1:11 PM

R90 yeah, Cusack does have an interesting, quiet and ‘different’ feel about him as an actor to usual leading men. It’s a pity he’s such a slimy, bitter, abusive waste of oxygen in his everyday personal life, because admittedly he has given some top-shelf screen performances.

TRUE COLORS (1991) is a really underrated and little-known movie of his that I just love, also starring Brat Pack-adjacent James Spader as his foil. It’s one of those slow-burning, emotional, homoromantic political thrillers that I believe would make a really great stage adaptation.

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by Anonymousreply 91January 18, 2022 1:15 PM

Better Off Dead... is underrated. Crazy to think drunken bastard John Cusack used to be cute. The Sure Thing was also a great road movie.

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by Anonymousreply 92January 18, 2022 2:29 PM

R91, I remember that film, I liked it

by Anonymousreply 93January 18, 2022 2:34 PM

I was obsessed with this film the summer before my sophomore year and since we didn’t have a vcr, I’d go next door and convince my same-aged neighbor to watch it. Every day. Why? The characters? The rebelliousness? The improbability of it ever happening in real life? All of it. I loved it all. And I was poor, starting a new high school that fall after moving halfway across the country, and only had one friend, so The Breakfast Club was my ideal, optimistic outcome for my sophomore year. Fuck was I an idiot. High school nearly destroyed me.

Recently I rewatched it, after a 35(!!) year hiatus with a relative who is a sophomore in high school. He said it’s obsessively watched by kids at his school. Partly for snark, partly for the retro-ness, partly for the actual story lines.

Is it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. But Hughes managed to make it a very watchable, albeit stereotypical/romantic snippet of what can be a difficult time in most humans lives.

by Anonymousreply 94January 18, 2022 3:08 PM

^^^A lot of my Gen Z students love this film and consider it one of their favorites.

by Anonymousreply 95January 18, 2022 4:43 PM

Judd Nelson has gigantic nostrils and Emilio was packing. Ally Sheedy is annoyance

by Anonymousreply 96January 18, 2022 5:38 PM

We used to call Judd - Horse Nostrils. I know, not really clever but if you were a teen in the 80s it seemed witty at the time.

by Anonymousreply 97January 18, 2022 6:03 PM

Kiddie movie

by Anonymousreply 98January 18, 2022 6:10 PM

"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is really the only Hughes teen movie I can watch anymore.

by Anonymousreply 99January 18, 2022 6:21 PM

I admit this only in anonymity, but I thought Judd Nelson’s giant nostrils and general air of disdain were hot.

by Anonymousreply 100January 18, 2022 6:24 PM

You have to had been a teenager in the 1980s to get the feel of the movie.

by Anonymousreply 101January 18, 2022 7:32 PM

R100 really? That’s interesting.

To my Zillennial dropout lower-class eyes, Bender mostly seems like a petulant and antisocial nihilist bully, who has entrenched homophobic and misogynistic beliefs (that was the times, I guess). Occasionally in scenes, the character has a line that makes a good point or two about classism, but between these rare glimmers of insight we just hear a ton of ugly vituperative that sounds like it’s coming from a tired bitter Gen Jones member more than a Gen Xer. Idk, maybe I’m missing the point of his character, but I just really dislike him, and I understand why Claire in particular thinks he’s an asshole (she’s an asshole too, in some ways, but she seems to develop some awareness and embarrassment about it).

When I first saw it as a 2000s teen, my favourite character was Allison. Looking back, I do still like her and have fondness for her, but she doesn’t strike me as deep or interesting. As an adult, I sympathise most with the principal, as I wouldn’t want to be dealing with these little shits on my weekend either.

by Anonymousreply 102January 18, 2022 7:35 PM

[quote] Bender mostly seems like a petulant and antisocial nihilist bully

Maybe I'm misremembering, but Bender seemed to have a soft spot for Brian, i.e. he wasn't acting as the typical bully picking on the scrawny nerd.

by Anonymousreply 103January 18, 2022 7:40 PM

^He did seem to have it in for Claire and Emilio's character though.

by Anonymousreply 104January 18, 2022 7:41 PM

John Hughes movies were reran to hell and back on HBO, other cable networks and The WB and UPN weekends. So many millennials watched them too. The 2000s was filled with so much 80s nostalgia and revival that these movies got more acclaim over the years.

by Anonymousreply 105January 18, 2022 7:41 PM

Bender was struggling playing out the cycle of being a child of an abusive, domineering father, if I remember correctly. Sort of alternating between vulnerability and remorse and bullying.

by Anonymousreply 106January 18, 2022 7:41 PM

R106 yeah, I suppose John was dealing with the fallout of CA, and that can’t have been easy. But he didn’t really ever completely let up on bullying the others and trying to pass on his abuse, which is where he lost my sympathy somewhat.

by Anonymousreply 107January 19, 2022 11:22 AM

R24 Were suede maxi pencil skirts ever actually a trend in the mid-80s (either before or after the movie), or was that a misfire by Ralph Lauren that never caught on?

by Anonymousreply 108January 19, 2022 7:54 PM

I had a hard-on for Carl the janitor who extorts the principal.

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by Anonymousreply 109January 19, 2022 8:03 PM

Maxi pencil skirts were definitely a thing. Made of suede? Not that I recall.

by Anonymousreply 110January 20, 2022 10:15 AM
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