John Hughes, 1950-2009

A young guy in the his late teens told me that he romanticized the 1980's because "When I look at all the high school movies from back then, it really seemed like everybody was always having such a great time, all of the time." As if he imagined that in those times every guy that cut school for a day got to sing "Danke Schoen" while riding on the Oktoberfest Parade float, or had the technology to build their very own Kelly LeBrock on their home Memotech computers while wearing women's underwear on their heads. But then again hell, I was a teenager in the 80's, even I wished I was living in their world, too. Sure, he wrote his share of piffle. But in the 1980's his torturous adolescent angst movies was essential get-together-over-the-weekend material for myself and the girlfriends, and the following are the ones that stick with me indelibly:

Sixteen Candles (1984): I remember seeing the trailer for this movie before it came out, and thinking, "The little girl that used to be on The Facts Of Life is in this movie." The little girl that my mother loved and wanted me to have her hairstyle (heaven knows she tried). Although I doubt my mother would have been as equally charmed by Molly Ringwald's snarky Samantha. But Samantha was for many people the first real introduction to Hughes' awkward little red-headed muse, who would go on to several other John Hughes written and directed productions throughout the 80's. Probably my favorite of the bunch, just for being audaciously funny and politically incorrect and not cramming some kind of message down our throats. The angst doesn't get as heavy-handed quite yet, but give the man some time. Or at least a year..

The Breakfast Club (1985): Probably a more defining teen movie for the way it spoke to teens in the language that it understood best; Drama and angst, angst and drama! Even I thought this movie was more than a little over-the-top to the point of being somewhat unrealistic at the time. But as years past, I think I can appreciate its hyperbolic intensity in places for being the set piece of its time. My friends all bawled their eyes out through it. Maybe I just couldn't understand why so many privileged white kids could have so many problems. Then again, maybe I was the more privileged one for not having as many as they did. Hmmm...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986): Ferris was one of Hughes' rare non-outsider lead characters. In fact Hughes went for a complete change of pace and decided to create a teenager that everyone openly envied, wanting to be in his inner circle for a change. Probably the funniest and the hardest I've laughed at any of Hughes' movies, and the one that still stands the test of over twenty years. Back when this picture was still in its initial run I remember poking my head into the theater as I was passing ( to attend another movie in the same theater) just on the hopes of catching Ferris at the end of the credits telling the audience to go home.

Pretty In Pink (1986): One of the two major 80's teen movies that John Hughes wrote but did not direct (the director for this picture was Howard Deutch), I also found moments in this to be eye-rollingly dramatic, especially Molly Ringwald's character Andie flipping out over the whole prom business. Hughes was obviously trying to heighten the poor-girl/rich-boy disparity where even I, outsider that I was in high school, couldn't buy into some of what he was pitchin'. Now in hindsight I probably could to a degree. But I never could quite understand what Andie saw in Blaine. He insulted her friends and even her clothes, and all on their first date. But I heard that test audiences hated the original ending where she goes to the prom with her best friend Duckie, which kind of made me sad -- but in order to get some kind of message across, I guess they did need to get awkwardly slammed back together to prove some kind of opposites attract bullshit or something. But getting to that point was loads of fun. Duckie dancing to Otis Redding in the record store reminded me of the time I tried to do the same thing to "Mr. Pitiful" at the Tower Records in London's Piccadilly Circus, but to lesser (and more embarrassing) effect. But I always hated the hideous dress Andie made for herself.

Weird Science (1985): Anthony Michael Hall, Bill Paxton, Robert Downey, Jr., and fucking Michael Berryman?? The cast was pitch-perfect for this picture of geeky virgin boys trying to survive bullies, big brothers, and adolescence under the guidance of Lisa, the woman they created Frankenstein-style from their home computer. Epic party scene. I still can't stop laughing at the image of the grandparents' frozen smiles as they stand in suspended animation in the kitchen pantry.

Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987): Also directed by Howard Deutch, this is the one picture from this list that I didn't see in the theaters during its release, and only caught it on cable TV several years later, after high school. But who can't relate to the angst of someone you love falling in love with someone else? Especially when the someone you love is your best friend? And what could be worse than having to spend an evening chauffeuring your best friend and his date around town in a silly uniform and pretending to be civil (and mostly failing)? Okay Hughes, you got me on this one. Aaaannnngst!