Breakfast Club, The (1985)

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I was born too late for The Breakfast Club to be common cultural currency for my generation, but coming to it years later I can understand its cult classic status. A bunch of 20-year-olds pretending to be high-school students -- a Princess, a Brain, a Jock, a Basket Case and a Criminal -- are held in detention one Saturday, where they learn that they have more in common with each other than they think.

John Hughes' script is smart and (mostly) believable; for all that I find it hard to believe that these kids would open up in the way that they do, their stories are all too real. It's no easy thing to make a teenager feel understood, but this, I think, would have done it.

If I got less out of it personally, well, at least I appreciate finally understanding the source of references like "you mess with the bull, you get the horns". I have to say, it was also a nice touch that even miserable Mr Vernon (Paul Gleason) got his own small moment of understanding from janitor Carl (John Kapelos).

A worthy classic of late Generation X.

- Sam - 2013-06-27 06:10:01