Was it maybe with Heathers that I discovered or realised that the teen film was a genre that I really liked? If so, that'd be at once apt and not - apt because I was in school myself then and also because I don't think I've come across an entry in the genre since that I've liked more, and yet not because, in retrospect, to the extent that it was the apotheosis of the 80s teen film, it was a genuinely apocalyptic one (albeit exactly calibrated to appeal to my sensibilities at the time).
Anyway, however it started, for me, the teen flick has been a totemic genre since the days when I was the same age as its protagonists and onwards since; in light of which it's again both surprising and not that I've never before seen any of John Hughes' entries in the field (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink ... I have seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off but for some reason have it filed away in a different category) - surprising inasmuch as they're seemingly canonical in the genre, but then less so given that they were made before my time, whereas much of the appeal for me was the personal identification with the characters, stories, situations.
But I've at last made my way to this one - The Breakfast Club - and found it charming, but lacking in the piercing, poignant quality or sense of recognition that my favourites in the genre have brought in the past. Partly that may be the timing - released in 1985, it feels overly simplistic and innocent, and after all that was close to three decades ago now. But I also wonder whether part of it may be me, my own school years now well and truly behind me. Still, though, I see the appeal - each of the five types is effectively archetypal ... and at last I understand why people always talk about Molly Ringwald as such an iconic teen star and sweetheart.
Anyway, however it started, for me, the teen flick has been a totemic genre since the days when I was the same age as its protagonists and onwards since; in light of which it's again both surprising and not that I've never before seen any of John Hughes' entries in the field (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink ... I have seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off but for some reason have it filed away in a different category) - surprising inasmuch as they're seemingly canonical in the genre, but then less so given that they were made before my time, whereas much of the appeal for me was the personal identification with the characters, stories, situations.
But I've at last made my way to this one - The Breakfast Club - and found it charming, but lacking in the piercing, poignant quality or sense of recognition that my favourites in the genre have brought in the past. Partly that may be the timing - released in 1985, it feels overly simplistic and innocent, and after all that was close to three decades ago now. But I also wonder whether part of it may be me, my own school years now well and truly behind me. Still, though, I see the appeal - each of the five types is effectively archetypal ... and at last I understand why people always talk about Molly Ringwald as such an iconic teen star and sweetheart.
