The Breakfast Club (1985)
Director: John Hughes
Writer: John Hughes
Actors: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall
I’ve watched a handful of this type of film. You know what type of film I am talking about. Films like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Clueless, Mean Girls, and many more. There have been thousands of highschool films throughout the year. Nearly all of them have been lost in obscurity. However, some lucky films survive and end up becoming cult classics. Films that have such dedicated fan bases that you can’t say anything wrong about it. These films obviously appeal to so many people, but I am not one of them. These type of films don’t give me anything that I want. They feel shallow and uninteresting to me. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was a big example, as the hype made me think I would watch something that I will remember forever. A couple of hours after I watched the film and I had already forgotten it. So when I first turned on The Breakfast Club, I was afraid the same thing was going to happen. Although the film is simplistic, I was surprised by some of the deeper elements it had, and it left a smile on my face by the end.
There is not much to say about The Breakfast Club. It is a simple film about a group of 5 teenagers stuck in detention on a Saturday. Each teen is a very exaggerated version of their stereotype. Sometimes I think too exaggerated but I will let that slide for now. We have the straight A nerd, the jock, the popular girl, the emo kid, and the bad boy. The film follows their antics as they are tasked with sitting in the library for 8 hours writing an essay on who they think they are. The film has some fun moments. It doesn’t take itself seriously which I don’t think it should based on the film that it sets out to be. However, what I enjoyed about the film is when it decides to bring out the ugly truth. It doesn’t shy away from telling it how it is and pausing the fun to talk about some real shit. My favorite scene in the entire film was after the kids smoked weed and had their fun. They sit down together and just air things out. They let out their true feelings without any bullshit. Claire for example tells Brian straight to his face that although they consider themselves friends, she will make fun of him once she is with her friends again. It is the way that highschoolers act, and she doesn’t sugarcoat it. She is even confused as to why she follows these “unspoken rules”. Other than that we hear alot about the kids and their struggles with their parents. Each teen has a different issue with their parents and it is somewhat indicative of their personalities and why they are how they are now. I really enjoyed it, and was glad to have such a wholesome moment in a seemingly fun highschool film.
There is not much else to say about The Breakfast Club. You know what you are getting into when you watch these sort of films. They are cult films for a reason, they resonate with certain people. Although I may not connect with these films like the fanbase does. I still appreciated The Breakfast Club and what it had to offer. It managed to make me laugh while also surprising me at times. It is a lighthearted movie that you can just sit back and watch without regretting afterwards. I guess that’s all you need from a movie.
