Innocence Lost

The Untimely passing of John Hughes was a small punch in the gut to me last week. Growing up in the 80's, I, like many of my friends fell in love with his movies and his characters. For some reason, this man really knew how to write about teenage angst. He had a knack for pointing out the differences in the high school class system but managed to peel those differences back and expose that we really are the same and in a few years, none of this will matter.

There are so many of his movies that I love, it was hard to pick which ones to talk about. These are only a few of many that he has either directed or written


Can I just tell you how much I loved Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles! I wanted to be Molly Ringwald SO bad just so I could kiss Jake at the end. How adorable was John Cusak in this movie, I know he had a bit part but c'mon he was a cutie even then. I love this twist of the girl pining away for the boy and trying so hard to meet him. Not only does she have to go through the embarrassment of giving her panties to a "geek", her family forgets her birthday AND her grandma grabs her boobs. If you are a 16 year old-all of this is mortifying. I love that to this day, I can still quote lines from this movie. The angst of being 16 and crushing on someone is one that will never grow old. We have all been there and know that pain and that's what makes this movie so awesome.

Another teenage angst movie is Pretty In Pink. Although he didn't direct this, he did write it. The only thing I have to say about this movie is -she should have gone with Ducky and why did she ruin the dress? Oh yeah, the soundtrack is awesome

What? You want MORE teenage angst? The acme of teenage angst movies-The Breakfast club. Oh my goodness-how many times did I see this movie? I can't even begin to count! Judd Nelson before he was all creepy and low budget-I loved him! Once again, we see Molly Ringwald, pouty lipped, complain about how hard her life is, but we still felt for her!Who knew that the people you made fun of, that you wanted nothing to do with had feelings? This is the classic example of what John Hughes did best, make us examine our own behavior, know it wouldn't change anything but still laugh at ourselves. You know that you still love the song "Don't you forget about me." Don't deny the love.

Possibly the best of all movies for any John Hughes fan, hell, anyone anywhere would be Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Just this morning at a meeting, someone referenced, "Bueller, Bueller, anyone." and it STILL got a laugh! Yes Ferris got his way but we loved him for that. We loved that he was smart, cute, had a great girlfriend. We just couldn't hate him. The best character in the whole movie is not Ferris but Grace, the secretary. I love her so much! This movie really does stand the test of time. It is a classic.

There are so many more John Hughes films that I'm missing-Weird Science, Some Kind of Wonderful, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, European Vacation (he wrote it, I never knew) that everyone has a favorite.

I'm really gonna miss John Hughes. For some reason I think I lost a little bit of my innocence when I heard he past away-it was like I grew up a little more and lost a little bit of that teenager inside me.