JAKE FOGELNEST

In 1998, I was contacted by Rhino Records to write liner notes for a compilation album called, “In Their Eyes: 90’s Teen Bands Vs. 80’s Teen Movies.”  It featured Ben Lee doing “If You Were Here” by Thompson Twins (as featured in Sixteen Candles), Phantom Planet covering Jackson Browne’s, “Somebody’s Baby” (which was used to take the virginity of Jennifer Jason Leigh in Fast Times At Ridgemont High) and The Donnas version of the Alice Cooper classic, “School’s Out” (from Rock ‘N’ Roll High School).  It was a pretty cool project.  With the recent passing of John Hughes, I was curious to re-read what I wrote about his films and the other teen movies of the 80’s, back when I was just about to end my own teen years.  So here it it is, some liner notes I wrote back in 1998!  This is exactly why the Internet must be stopped.

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Recently I was speaking to a woman who had just written and directed her first feature film, a coming-of-age story involving a teenage girl. I asked her if it was reminiscent of a John Hughes film.  She explained that she hadn’t seen any of his movies. My jaw dropped.  How is it possible to write a coming of age story involving a teenage girl without ever having seen Sixteen Candles?  Before I could say anything, she pulled out a rented copy of The Breakfast Club and explained, “Don’t worry that’s all going to change tonight.”

I had just completed a screenplay where I pay homage to teen romantic comedies the way Scream did with teen slasher movies. I became obsessed with explaining to her the importance of such John Hughes classics as Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and other teen masterpieces – Fast Times At Ridgemont High,Valley Girl, Say Anything…, The Breakfast Club was definitely as good a place as any to begin. I got up to leave as she popped in the tape but soon found myself sucked in for the duration.

The teen comedies of the 1980’s are the best movies ever made. It’s just that simple. These films were made for teenagers of the 80’s but us kids who wouldn’t turn 13 until after 1990 also watched them (usually not in the theater, but on home video six to eight months after their theatrical release – and then over and over again for years). For me, being a young kid in the 80’s, I thought of these movies as a preview of what to expect when I became a teenager.

Forget all that film student art-house crap, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling, is a perfect film from start to finish.  Watching it now it’s as fresh as it was when I first saw it ten years ago. The film makes a lot more sense too. I finally get all the sex jokes. The first time I saw it, it was shocking - these kids were cursing, doing drugs and, most importantly, taking their clothes off! Nudity was something I had never seen in a film before.  I mean who didn’t rewind over and over again the scene with Phoebe Cates getting out of the pool?  And I thought for sure when I turned 13 I’d be Sean Penn in Fast Times. Of course, I ended up more like Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles. But that’s a long story.

Lots of directors and writers contributed to this genre, but John Hughes was the master. The films he wrote and/or directed captured teen life perfectly. Who couldn’t picture one’s self in The Breakfast Club – an epic film about a day (one long day) in detention? I mean, in our lives all of us know (or were) a criminal, a princess, a brain, a basket case, and an athlete.

Then there was Pretty In Pink. Who among us couldn’t identify with Duckie (Jon Cryer), the poor sap who’s in love with his best friend but knows she’s in love with somebody else (a theme writer Hughes and director Howard Deutch revisited in their next collaboration, Some Kind Of Wonderful)? Sixteen Candles is equally painfully universal: your family is crazy, you’re in love with someone, and he/she doesn’t even know you exist! And in Weird Science, when two kids create their dream woman from a jazzed up Atari system… Um, OK… well the point is, these are all stories teens could relate to… or maybe just sometimes wanted to.

With all of these films, I remember my first time… I have a distinct memory of living in Philadelphia, being a forth grader, and watching Sixteen Candles for the first time in my friend Alex Nagy’s basement. We knew every word by heart and there was nothing – I repeat, nothing – funnier than Long Duk Dong.

My father took me to see Weird Science. There was the beautiful, half-naked woman (Kelly LeBrock) on the screen and foul-mouthed nerdy kids right next to her. I think Dad and I bonded that day. We sure as hell didn’t have that much fun we saw Fletch.

My Mom got to take me to see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – the film that had the biggest effect on me. I’d recite Ferris’ dialogue as if it were my own that summer I was stuck in this horrible day camp in the suburbs. I had no interest in swimming, so I’d ditch the swim class and hide out (my motto was “Leisure Rules”). I’d sneak off to where the camp rock band practiced and some how I convinced them to let me sing “Twist and Shout” with them at an assembly performance. I was Ferris Bueller. I had teen angst. I was nine.

Of course there were other important teen films in the 80’s besides John Hughes’: Martha Coolidge’s Valley Girl, which was always on HBO after midnight, Cameron’ Crowe’s Say Anything… which came later but is certainly one o the best in the genre: Rob Reiner’s, The Sure Thing which for some strange reason I was never allowed to see (very weird considering I was allowed to watch Risky Business over and over again) and still haven’t but I hear it’s quite good, and the often-overlooked “Savage” Steve Holland classics Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, to name but a few.

All moments of teenage life have a soundtrack to them, and music plays an important part in all of these films. The films came about when soundtrack albums were more than marketing tools. The songs were chosen with care, they belong in the film, and you can tell.  Ever since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, whenever I see a Ferrari, I hear “Oh Yeah” pounding away in my brain. And no song could’ve better accompanied Andie Walsh’s (Molly Ringwald’s) triumphant entrance to the Pretty In Pink prom than “If You Leave.” Likewise, it’s hard to imagine any song other than “If You Were Here” setting the mood when Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald again) finally gets her guy in Sixteen Candles. And “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” perfectly compliments The Breakfast Club’s finale when princess Clair (Uh, Ringwald again) and her newfound friends head back to their separate lives.

Hopeless teen romantics everywhere no doubt aped the Say Anything… scene where kick boxer Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) stands beneath Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) window, boom box overhead, serenading her with “In Your Eyes”. And what tune could’ve possibly better accompanied the teen-riot scene in director Allan Arkush’s Rock ‘N’ Roll High School than the anthemic and timeless “School’s Out?” (I could go on, but they’re counting my words here).

The 90’s have failed to provide us with a good teen-angst-comedy. It’s like Reality Bites came out and set the tone for the decade. Or maybe Heathers (1989) just killed the genre – literally.  School’s Out… forever.

At least there are about 15 classic teen films that, thanks to cable and the VCR, will continue to entertain and enlighten teens for generations to come. To have these 90’s teen artists bring back all the great 80’s soundtrack songs is amazing. It shows exactly how much of an impact these movies have had on all of our lives.

-Jake Fogelnest