The Breakfast Club

_**Forced, artificial dialogs with eye-rolling character arcs**_ Released in 1985 and written & directed by John Hughes, "The Breakfast Club" is a teen dramedy about five high school students from five different sub-cultures during an all-day detention over the weekend at their suburban Chicago school. Molly Ringwald plays the popular girl, Emilio Estevez the jock, Anthony Michael Hall the Brainiac nerd, Judd Nelson the dope-smoking rebel and Ally Sheedy the neurotic misfit. Paul Gleason and John Kapelos are on hand as the host principal and janitor respectively This movie has a big reputation as an 80's teen flick, but I was wholly disappointed. Most of the discussions between the five students from different cliques come across contrived and unconvincing. Some of the dialog is actually cringe-inducing. The hoodlum could've worked as a character, like the Fonz or Vinnie Barbarino, but he's such an annoying, loud-mouthed jerk that he loses all sympathy, particularly when he verbally rapes the redhead on multiple occasions for no ostensible reason. *** SPOILER ALERT*** The fact that the two end up together at the end adds insult to injury. ***END SPOILER*** Not to mention two others that unrealistically couple up. It's strange that "The Breakfast Club" is billed as a comedy because there's very little that's funny, although it's occasionally entertaining, like some of the music sequences. Unfortunately, Hughes wasn't into the heavier side of rock and so the soundtrack consists solely of bland 80's new wave bands, like his other 80's teen flicks (e.g. "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of quality songs, like "We Are Not Alone" by Karla DeVito, but where are the heavier popular bands of 1984, like Van Halen, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Ratt, Dokken, Queensryche, Def Leppard, AC/DC or Motley Crue? Is it asking too much to have ONE song that actually rocks? But the music is the least of the movie's problems (and isn't really a problem at all, except that there aren't any heavy tracks). The actors are fine, but Hughes' dialog is unconvincing. As such, you don't buy the characters. The script needed a serious rewrite. The movie runs 97 minutes and was shot in the suburbs north of Chicago. GRADE: C-

An absolute classic, and no mistake. If you disagree, sorry, you're wrong. John Hughes was an utter genius.

I'd struggle to recall any other of Judd Nelson's films, but in this he really does shine. He's the obvious recalcitrant amongst five teenage youths who have been dragged into school on a Saturday for some seemingly rather pointless detention. This is manna from heaven for their headmaster "Vernon" (Paul Gleason), who takes pleasure in exercising his gradually dwindling authority over his charges. Whilst he leaves them to work, they set about assembling and disassembling each other's character. Nelson ("Bender") is the outlaw: loud, brash and a pain in the neck. "Andrew" (Emilio Estevez) is the high-school athlete; "Claire" (Molly Ringwald) the slightly aloof of the group; "Brian" (Anthony Michael Hall) is the swat and "Allison" (Ally Sheedy) - well she's the enigma of the group, rarely deigning to contribute as "Bender" begins an hour and a half that allows each of them to expose - sometimes more willingly than not, some of the more private and contentious aspects of their personalities. Whilst their supervisor becomes distracted in the basement with caretaker "Carl" (John Kapelos) this erstwhile disparate group of reprobates start to realise they have way more in common than they'd initially thought and thanks to a really quite potent script and some very natural performances, we begin to see something far less predicable emerging from these folks. Sure, there are some traditional stories of failed families or outrageous parental aspirations or rebellion, but they are presented here with plenty of humour and more of a degree of plausibility than in many films that just trot out the same old story arcs as if they were college lectures. There's little off limits, but nothing at all graphic as they try to find a new focus for their lives. John Hughes mixes the comedy with the more earnest engagingly here and these actors deliver something just a bit different.

I absolutely love this film. When I saw that Ster-Kinekor was having a throwback screening, I immediately went to book my tickets to see it on the big screen. I still think The Breakfast Club is an incredible film, and the core message it presents remains deeply important and relevant even today. I love the premise: a group of seemingly random students in detention: the jock, the emo kid, the popular girl, the nerd, the rule-breaker, all thrown together. As the day unfolds, the labels fall away, and they begin to form a bond. They come to realise that everyone is dealing with their own struggles, that everyone has a voice, a goal, and a place in the world. That sense of unity and empathy, of coming together despite differences, is what I adore most. The film sends such a powerful message: no matter who you are, you are enough. You belong. And I love that.