A classic

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. Personally, I always had a rather hard time with John Hugues. Indeed, by now, I have seen almost all his directing efforts and none of his movies really impressed me. However, there was one notable exception and it is this flick which was indeed quite amazing. First of all, it was the first movie directed by Hughes that I saw so maybe I wasn’t fed up yet with his directing style. Above all, I thought it was the only movie he made for which I thoroughly enjoyed the tone. Indeed, usually, I think the plots he develops are utterly childish and hardly entertaining. This time, even though there were some funny moments, there were also some rather grim scenes and the balance between these moods was very well done. On top of that, the characters, who are usually terribly underwhelming in his work, were very well written, quite complex and rather fascinating to behold. It has always been said that John Hughes was great at creating some compelling portrayals of teenagers but I rather disagree. In my opinion, his teenagers are usually some underwhelming walking clichés but, in this movie, I have to admit it, he got it right though and gave the right amount of self-righteousness, arrogance and lack of self-esteem and confidence. Well, after all these years, even though it has been criticized that it didn't age well, I actually don't agree and, in my opinion, it is still one of the best movies about teenagers. The only issue might be the lack of minority representation since all these kids were White and straight but I guess John Hugues wanted to write about the people he actually knew something about. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was a really good flick, it deserves its reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10