Matthew Broderick wrote the worst tribute to John Hughes in this week's Entertainment Weekly. It makes absolutely no mention of his career, Ferris Bueller, or anything aside from them sitting in a hot tub watching their shorts fill up with bubbles (awkward? yeah, really awkward).
So it looks like the task of paying tribute to this amazing writer and director falls to me (mostly because Anthony Michael Hall is still trying to get that Dead Zone TV movie off the ground).
John Hughes changed my life.
I know, I know--every teenager watches The Breakfast Club and says that it changed their life. Those who don't usually say Mean Girls changed their life and those people are called "Morons."
The Breakfast Club is not only the quintessential teen movie, but it's also a damn good overall script.
How ballsy is it to write a movie about teenagers and high school where there's no blatant love story, no homecoming, no classes, no cool summer vacation storyline, and no blood poured on the prom queen.
Can you imagine that pitch?
"It's about a bunch of teenagers discussing their neuroses."
I bet they were just THROWING money after that meeting.
What I love about every John Hughes movie is how effectively he destroys stereotypes. He took the image of the "pretty girl" and turned it completely on its head. He did the same for "jocks," "nerds," and "weirdos." I'm not even sure they would produce the movies he made now. He wasn't ahead of his time then; he was ahead of his time even for right now.
Don't get me wrong; there were times when the guy absolutely infuriated me.
I never got over him having Andie wind up with Blane instead of Duckie in "Pretty in Pink." Plus, I always wondered why they made seventeen Police Academies but NO sequel to The Breakfast Club.
(What? Am I the only one who wanted to play the child of Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez?)
All that aside, it simultaneously breaks my heart and seems fitting that he stopped making movies like that when he did.
How do you top Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club all in the same decade?
His biggest achievement, however, goes back to the beginning of this tribute.
He made Matthew Broderick look like a good actor. He made him look like such a good actor that people have been employing him for years based solely on how good he made him look in Ferris Bueller.
Now that takes downright genius.
So it looks like the task of paying tribute to this amazing writer and director falls to me (mostly because Anthony Michael Hall is still trying to get that Dead Zone TV movie off the ground).
John Hughes changed my life.
I know, I know--every teenager watches The Breakfast Club and says that it changed their life. Those who don't usually say Mean Girls changed their life and those people are called "Morons."
The Breakfast Club is not only the quintessential teen movie, but it's also a damn good overall script.
How ballsy is it to write a movie about teenagers and high school where there's no blatant love story, no homecoming, no classes, no cool summer vacation storyline, and no blood poured on the prom queen.
Can you imagine that pitch?
"It's about a bunch of teenagers discussing their neuroses."
I bet they were just THROWING money after that meeting.
What I love about every John Hughes movie is how effectively he destroys stereotypes. He took the image of the "pretty girl" and turned it completely on its head. He did the same for "jocks," "nerds," and "weirdos." I'm not even sure they would produce the movies he made now. He wasn't ahead of his time then; he was ahead of his time even for right now.
Don't get me wrong; there were times when the guy absolutely infuriated me.
I never got over him having Andie wind up with Blane instead of Duckie in "Pretty in Pink." Plus, I always wondered why they made seventeen Police Academies but NO sequel to The Breakfast Club.
(What? Am I the only one who wanted to play the child of Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez?)
All that aside, it simultaneously breaks my heart and seems fitting that he stopped making movies like that when he did.
How do you top Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club all in the same decade?
His biggest achievement, however, goes back to the beginning of this tribute.
He made Matthew Broderick look like a good actor. He made him look like such a good actor that people have been employing him for years based solely on how good he made him look in Ferris Bueller.
Now that takes downright genius.
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