MOFO 80's Teen Movie Hall of Fame

I never really knew what this movie was about. I knew it starred John Cusack, was an 80's teen comedy, but I also thought he dealt with zombies. I was under the impression it was almost exactly like My Boyfriend's Back (a film I almost nominated). So I was surprised to see it was just about a girlfriend obsessed teen.

At first I was thinking, this guy is legit crazy. 6 months and he has cardboard cutouts of this girl in his closet for every coat hanger? Run girl....RUN!!!!! Then the film quickly acknowledged that we are simply seeing the world through a love-struck teenagers mind. When the food his mom makes decides to run away or when the students' hair stand up due to screeching from chalk on a board, these are moments his mind exaggerates. These little elements take us into the mindset of our protagonist and tell us that what we see is from an unreliable narrator.

As far as 80's teen comedies go, this one is solid. I had a little subplot in my mind where the mother was actually an alien trying to take over a family, but no one would eat her blue food. The always reliable 80's teen sidekick Curtis Armstrong shows up as well. That was like....his thing back in the day.

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Suspect's Reviews

Rather like that perspective.

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Say Anything. . .

I will say: SPOILERS

What surprised me about this film, and with that surprise is a gained appreciation, is the emotional honesty that is embedded throughout. Rising to the surface to slip inside of us, the viewers.

It starts off simply and generally.

High school graduation.

Graduation party.

A date between two nervous people who seemed to find a calmness in each other's company. Like so many aspects of the heart, it sort of creeps up on them while life moves forward without pause or gentleness.

Much like the two of them, the enjoyment and fondness for the film did the same for me. It crept up on me til I was more than a little invested and concerned that things would come together for them. I actually was wondering, at one point, if they would be together or say goodbye.
Yeah, I know, in every romance film there is that uncertainty, it's textbook. But, also, when things are more honest and less glossy or glamorized, things do not always work out.
And that final scene as they wait for the ding of the smoking sign and the film ends at the ding, I smiled at such a perfect ending.
Talk about your honest life ending to a film. Expressing how it's one moment to the next, filled with trepidation and anxiety about "will we be okay?" Facing it together. In one another's embrace.

Truly, a BRAVO ending to film that avoided the usual trappings, spoke from the heart sans Hallmark sentiment and, like love will do; creep up on you until you suddenly realize. . .

how you honestly feel.

Why do I have the distinct impression Can't Buy Me Love was definitely dealing with some #Metoo moments.

Can't Buy Me Love is sort of a story of two films, the high school romance and the high school comedy. Strangely I found the high school romance to be much compelling and interesting than the high school part where every side character seemed like a horrible actor. The plot of the film is Ronald having saved up one thousand dollars for a telescope comes across the HS cheerleader trying to buy and replace her mothers one thousand dollar outfit. Ronald cuts a deal with Cindy that if she becomes his GF for a month he'll give her the money for the outfit, she agrees.

During the first act we see Cindy come to terms with dating a guy like Ronald who is into her. She transforms fairly quickly and when the month ends and they break up Cindy is sort of left staggered and stuck in an existential crisis of sorts. Sadly the film is less focused on Cindy's issues and moves towards Ronald becoming popular and turning into a jerk(of sorts).

I'm not sure either one of the two climax's really made much sense to me, they felt tacked on and didn't really ring true. I don't really have much of a clue as to where I'm going to rank this one because I really enjoyed 40% of this one

hey @Citizen Rules

guess what Im watching tonight..

Allison Reynold's sandwich - white bread wheat bread pixy stix butter and cap't crunch cereal.....

No thanks!

I was very surprised that nobody nominated this movie for this HoF.

There's always the 80s Teen Movie HoF Part 2

Very true.... I know many films from then to nominate.

I love to do another 80s Teen Movie Hof. I've been showing my parents the movies from this HoF and they've actually liked them!

We can sit one up here soon but not right after the first one.. I have a few other ideas for HOF....

Let's not start any HoFs until there actually ready to start. Love to hear your ideas for your next HoFs

sent ya a PM

lol

Can't Buy Me Love (1987)

On the surface, this is the story of a nerdy boy who buys his way into hanging out with the cool kids, but it's more about how that changed him, and the girl who he used to buy his way in.

Once he was "in", he became a jerk, just like most of the kids that he wanted to be. At the same time, the girl got to see how great he was before he changed, and she became a much nicer person. It shows us that being popular isn't necessarily better.

I liked Ronald before he changed, and I didn't think he deserved to end up with Cindy. When he did what he did to his friend's house on Halloween, he showed what being popular really cost him. His best friend, who was a real friend, unlike the jerks who just accepted him because they thought Cindy liked him.

Strangely, the person that I connected to in the movie was his friend Kenneth. When I was in school, I was the type of person who wasn't one of the popular kids, but I had a few very good friends. One day, one of my friends was seduced by the dark side, and she somehow ended up "in" with the popular kids, and she quickly left our small group behind. She changed, just like Ronald did, and she started treating me (and our small group of friends) like we were nobodies. But when the popular kids eventually dropped her, she was alone because we didn't want her back after the way she treated us. (Maybe she should have made a speech like Ronald did to save Kenneth.)

Better Off Dead (1985)

I enjoyed this movie, but at times, it was a little bit too "over the top" for my tastes. Some of it, like the animated hamburger sequence, was so far out that they took me out of the movie.

I liked the idea of Lane being so distraught about losing his girlfriend that he turns to attempting suicide, but I found it annoying that he imagined that everyone else wanted to ask her out. I liked the idea of the psychotic newsboy, but again, they took it too far when there were a whole bunch of kids on bicycles chasing Lane.

I hated Ricky and his mother, and I just wanted Monique to tell them how much she hated them and walk away from them, but she just let Ricky keep putting his hands all over her.

And don't even get me started about the idiot drag racers and the Howard Cosell voice. I wish Lane would have just ignored them so they would have gone away.

I think I would have liked it a little bit more if they had toned down some of the craziness in the movie, but I always like John Cusack, especially in his teen movies, and overall this was an enjoyable movie.

Say Anything... (1989)

I liked that this was one of the more realistic teen movies. All of the characters seemed like real people, and the situations felt like they could really happen in real life.

I liked everything about the romance between Lloyd and Diane, but I wish they would have left out the part about her father and the IRS.

Crossroads (1986)

I had already seen this movie before watching it for this HoF, and I already knew that it was a great movie, but I never considered it a "teen movie". It doesn't have the "feel" of a teen movie, but rather it has the "feel" of a drama. (However that doesn't take away from how much I loved this movie. )

The teen romance part of the movie feels like a minor plotline. It's mostly about Ralph Macchio's Lightning Boy and Joe Seneca's Willie Brown, and the journey they take together to the crossroads.

I think what makes this movie great is how we see Macchio's character go from a musical prodigy to a master of the blues. We know that he is a great musician, but as Willie Brown says, his music lacks soul, which he finds through the hardships of his journey and the short romance with Frances, played by Jami Gertz.

I loved the guitar battle at the end, where we see how much he has learned on his journey.

Me too. I was sure it would be nominated!

Teen Wolf, I don't know how to feel about this one. On one hand the film has an exceptionally bad problem of one-dimensional characters. Everyone and everything revolves around the lead (Michael J Fox) and even he's not particularly interesting. The film also doesn't really feel like it tells a complete story, in a number of ways this is like a shallower version of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And yet on the other hand I sort of enjoyed the light escapism of the story, it never takes it's self seriously and for whatever reason that ended up working in this case. The movie is at the end of the day a message film, it centers around the idea that you don't need to be exceptional and that you can be exceptional on the inside..or something of that sort. It's an interesting idea and it plays out well especially with the father character.

We need to get this HOF wrapped up. How about January 13th as an end date?

Has everyone got most of the nomination watched so far?