anyone who was ever a loser in high school has an appreciation for john hughes. or maybe it's just anyone who was ever my age who has an appreciation. i remember years ago a friend saying that the chronological edges of "our generation" could be easily defined by whether or not a person really got the breakfast club. there was a film that totally blew my mind in high school - not just because it was the first time i had ever seen a person like me portrayed on screen (allison, duh) but because it was possibly the first film i ever saw that didn't have a plot. "a nightclub owner's ex-girlfriend arrives in town with her husband, ww2 resistance fighter, and the nazis hot on their trail" is a plot. "kids sit in library all day and find themselves" is not a plot. i watched that film a million times and practically memorised it. he was a brilliant screenwriter who probably gets quoted a million times a day in conversation.
and, if you want some good filmcraft-y watching, pretty in pink is one of the few great teen flicks where a sewing machine plays a pivotal role. and yeah, i wish she chose duckie, but i think the fact that she didn't in that moment is more realistic, and probably made the rest of us more likely to choose the duckies in our own lives.
