Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson and Molly Ringwold in the John Hughes movie ‘The Breakfast Club’

The franchise of success following John Hughes staked out a happy, in some ways formative following for many folks of a certain age. The coming-of-age story as cinematic bildungsroman was one of the stronger landing points, with our looking back upon The Breakfast Club (1985) proving itself as one of perhaps the leading example offered in terms of writing, direction and production for Hughes.

(From left, Judd Nelson as John Bender, Emilio Estevez as Andrew Clark, Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds, Molly Ringwald as Claire Standish and Anthony Michael Hall as Brian Johnson in the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club).

The Breakfast Club begins with five students showing up for detention on Saturday, March 24th, 1984. With the hint of the song Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds cut into our meeting Brian Johnson, Allison Reynolds, Andrew Clark, Claire Standish and John Bender, hints of relationships at home coupled with distinctly different personalities for the students take shape simply by this introduction. Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson portrayed Johnson, Reynolds, Clark, Standish and Bender, respectively.

(Paul Gleason as Vice Principal Richard Vernon in the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club).

The five represent stereotypes of students fitting into cliques while figuring themselves out. Brian Johnson presents as socially awkward yet intelligent. Allison Reynolds presents as a shy loner that keeps to herself. Andrew Clark has the reputation as a volatile wrestler. Popular snob Claire Standish shows up as spoiled. We see John Bender as a delinquent with a rebellious side. The proposition for the movie is that these stereotypes will try to understand one another in this temporary space while getting to know each other with a deeper understanding than they had when the day started.

(John Kapelos as janitor Carl Reed in the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club).

Vice Principal Richard Vernon, as portrayed by Paul Gleason, is the authority figure responsible for administering to the students. His interactions helps to provoke some of the action throughout the movie. The fact that Vernon in fact wants to be respected and liked by these kids is a moment of clarity given to Vernon by janitor Carl Reed. John Kapelos portrayed Reed.

(Clockwise from left, actor Judd Nelson, actress Molly Ringwold, actor Emilio Estevez, actress Ally Sheedy, director, producer and screenwriter John Hughes, and actor Anthony Michael Hall in support of the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club).

This comedic look largely into the feelings and thoughts of five teenagers from different experiences works as comedy while giving the primary adolescent audience insight into the worlds they lived in. This movie lands at the top of any made by John Hughes, whether that be as a writer, director or producer. I rate The Breakfast Club as directed, written and produced by John Hughes 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, March 25, 2023

Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Schoeffling in the John Hughes movie ‘Sixteen Candles’

We turn to writer and director John Hughes with his directorial debut movie. The coming-of-age comedy looks into the experiences of a handful of high school kids, themed around a girl whose family has forgotten to celebrate a girl on her sixteenth birthday. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Shoeffling star in the movie Sixteen Candles (1984).

(From left, Molly Ringwald as Samantha ‘Sam’ Baker and Liane Curtis as Randy in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

Molly Ringwald stars as Samantha ‘Sam’ Baker, whose sixteenth birthday opens with a telephone conversation with her good friend Randy. Liane Curtis portrays Randy, who offers encouragement through the events of a weekend where embarrassing event after embarrassing event greet Sam. The events escalate from forgotten birthday wishes before school to an embarrassing admission, passed during study hall, that falls into the hands of Sam’s secret crush.

(From left, Haviland Morris as Caroline Mulford and Michael Schoeffling as Jake Ryan in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

Michael Shoeffling portrays Jake Ryan, Sam’s older secret crush who has been seeing Caroline Mulford, as portrayed by Haviland Morris. The age difference plays a role in Sam’s reluctance to approach Jake, let alone her unawareness of Jake having read the note and considering a response that would make Sam happy. It is while riding the school bus home that we learn ‘Farmer Ted’, also known as Ted Farmer, is also interested in Sam.

(From left, Anthony Michael Hall as Ted Farmer, John Cusack as Bryce and Darren Harris as Cliff, also known as ‘Wease,’ in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

Anthony Michael Hall portrays Ted Farmer. Farmer Ted either is Sam’s age, or slightly younger. In approaching Sam Baker in multiple awkward and embarrassing ways of his own, he uses trust within his own social group while using self-assurance to connect at separate points with Sam, Jake Ryan and Caroline Mulford. Much of the film’s humor and sweetness gets expressed through situations Farmer bridges. Parallel humor surrounds the character of Long Duk Dong, who bridges separate points in the familial and high school stories expressed within Sixteen Candles.

(From left, Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong and Debbie Pollack as Marlene, also known as ‘Lumberjack’ in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

Gedde Watanabe portrays Long Duk Dong, a foreign exchange student living with one set of Sam Baker’s grandparents. Dong connects with Marlene, as portrayed by Debbie Pollack, at a school dance. Dong’s introduction was intended for a series of promiscuity-based jokes that overlapped with the appearance of Sam Baker’s sister and extended family for what would be the marriage of Ginny Baker, Sam’s sister, the day after Sam’s sixteenth birthday. Blanche Baker portrayed Ginny Baker.

(From left, Blanche Baker as Ginny Baker, Carlin Glynn as Mrs. Brenda Baker and Zelda Rubinstein as Organist in the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

The events surrounding Ginny Baker’s wedding, including the family introductions, the ceremony itself and the immediate aftermath offer embarrassments of lighthearted humor for the family, friends and celebrants in attendance. The bringing together of this event as well as the larger movie offer a nice tying together of the movie, if not the knot of marriage itself.

(From left, actress Molly Ringwald, writer/director John Hughes and actor Michael Schoeffling on set of the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles).

The movie Sixteen Candles offered lighthearted comedy in the spirit of coming-of-age comedy. Not all jokes have aged well, yet nothing significantly over-the-top from a gender or culturally mean-spirited perspective, at least to my listening, is a legacy here. The perspective is largely an awkward, teenage one. In this sandbox, the movie is appropriate and appealing. I offer Sixteen Candles as written and directed by John Hughes 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, November 24, 2021

A playful swim and dance for the film ‘The Shape of Water’

The Guillermo Del Toro-directed movie The Shape of Water (2017) is showing in a theater near you. The tale is a playful, generous of spirit fantasy film that offers a generous outlooks toward disability, sexual expression, and a manner of storytelling that asks many to lighten up about taboos of American culture that were present during the time period covered in the film.

The story take place somewhere in the mid-1950s to early 1960s in and around Baltimore, Maryland. The Shape of Music‘s soundtrack reflects a charmingly playful tribute to these time periods, as does the storytelling of the tale. Soundtrack pieces that help set a sense of time include 1962’s A Summer Place by Andy Williams, 1955’s Babalu by Caterina Valente, 1941’s Chica Chica Boom Chic by Carmen Miranda, and 1941’s I Know Why (And So Do You) by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. The feeling is very jazz, upbeat, and playful.

Vanessa Taylor joined the director, Guillermo Del Toro, in garnering writing credit for a screenplay for a 13-time Oscar nominated fantasy film. The film aims to look back to an earlier time in Hollywood and popular culture, with dance, musical, popular culture, and other references from a previous era. (For plagiarism allegations appearing after the Academy Award nominations last week, see this Rolling Stone magazine piece written by Joyce Chen from January 26th, 2018).

(Sally Hawkins as Elisa Esposito)

The Shape of Water stars Sally Hawkins as Elisa Esposito, a mute janitor at Occam’s Aerospace Research Center. Mild-mannered artist Giles as played by Richard Jenkins enjoys conversation and artistry as he struggles for companionship, physical and/or interpersonal intimacy, and a stable income for his artistry at a time where his artistry is losing ground to photography. Some ugly realities of Jim Crow and homophobia are expressed at the restaurant Dixie Doug’s Pie, the first subject receiving fuller treatment in the experiences of Zelda Fuller, as played by Octavia Spencer.

(Octavia Spencer as Zelda Fuller)

Michael Shannon stars in the film as Richard Strickland. It is Strickland that one-dimensionally injectsa tamer sense of intrigue and conflict into The Shape of Water with an obsession towards tracking The Cold War asset of a male ampibious human through South America. Strickland is focused on being a decent soldier and a single-minded military discipline aimed at succeeding in his mission rather than any kind of human decency towards the amphibious man. Actor Doug Jones plays the amphibious human hybrid.

(Michael Shannon as Richard Strickland)

The Shape of Water first and foremost seeks to share a love for the place and time it inhabits with a certain sense of nostalgia to time-period. I felt a directorial sense of love for place and time that also aims to wrap its conscience around the larger questions of injustice of the time period. The injustices were expressed for consideration as a gentle nudge towards recognizing wrong where it exists and trying to do better. There was additional asks to lighten up on private matters of intimacy.

(Director and co-writer Guillermo Del Toro)

The entertainment in the film, beyond the appealing visual and auditory style reminiscent of a time roughly 55 to 60 years ago, was The Cold War tension that underpinned a central piece to the larger narrative of The Shape of Water. The central questions that grew beyond nostalgia were in telling the universal feelings of love, communication, and connection in relationships. A central motif was in advocating for a basic decency in matters of interpersonal relationships, whether those relationships be human to human, feline to human, fantastic amphibious creature to human, or self-directed.

(Richard Jenkins, left, as Giles and Doug Jones, right, as Amphibious Man)

There were many explored relationships dealing with the central question of decency that provoke thought and follow-up. The raising of these questions in The Shape of Water were in some ways profound; perhaps the biggest subject to consider would be how the two characters who had the biggest difficulty communicating and advocating for themselves, most pronounced being Elisa Esposito and Amphibious Man with strong support from Giles, Zelda Fuller, and even Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (as played by Michael Stuhlberg).

(Sally Hawkins, left, as Elisa Esposito and Doug Jones, right, as Amphibious Man)

The most important story in the film combined the nostalgia of the past with actual voice with dance. We see Elisa Esposito sharing dance with both Amphibious Man and Giles. The framing of the speaker who introduces and closes the movie’s narration also brings the central messaging for The Shape of Water, with how the effect of water shaped the central reality for the experiences of the characters, should be well received in this film.

Matt – Sunday, January 28, 2018.