The Breakfast Club (1985): ***

One Saturday, five students have to attend their local high school for an all-day detention. The state champion wrestler Andrew (Emilio Estevez), the prim and proper Claire (Molly Ringwald), the delinquent John (Judd Nelson), the geek Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and the weirdo Allison (Ally Sheedy) are confined in the school’s library at the behest of Mr Vernon (Paul Gleason). John antagonises the others, causes arguments and flouts the rules directly in front of Mr Vernon when he comes in to check on them. As the hours pass, they begin to talk and get to know each other, sharing secrets and discovering they have similar problems. 

The Breakfast Club has become an iconic 80s film and is considered to be one of the greatest high school films. All the elements are there: the students discover that each one of them has hidden depths, they explode into dancing and they hate authority figures. It’s easy to see why it’s such an appealing film; however, it did not click with me. Consequently some of the scenes left me cold, particularly when the students reveal their troubled home-lives. The Breakfast Club promotes honesty but vilifies characters in the same breath for speaking the truth. Claire states that they probably won’t hang out with each other on Monday, due to the peer pressure from their circle of friends. The rest of the group proceed to berate and shout at her for daring to say such a thing, even though they know inside that it is the ugly reality. Director/writer John Hughes seems to be aiming for authenticity, but he couldn’t resist adding a sentimental happy ending. Claire gives Allison a make-over before pairing off the teenagers, except for the odd-one-out Brian. The Breakfast Club also contains some homophobic jokes and insults which are uncomfortable to hear.

Where The Breakfast Club does excel is with its cast. Molly Ringwald is excellent as Claire, a popular girl who feels pressurised to be sexually active and whose parents use her as ammunition to get back at each other. Ringwald’s Claire is warm towards her peers but sensitive to John’s jabs about her. Anthony Michael Hall also is a standout as Brian, the painfully awkward physics geek, eager to please others in the hope of gaining a friend. Hall acts with a nervous smile and downward head, managing to be sympathetic without being completely pathetic. Ally Sheedy relishes her role as Allison, the bizarre girl who sits at the back and says very little. Sheedy’s Allison has vocal outbursts, crunches her food and hawks her spit, all these tics disguise her perceptiveness underneath. Emilio Estevez isn’t quite as strong as his co-stars in the acting department, although he is charming in his role as Andrew, the wrestler pushed by everyone around him to excel without any regard to what Andrew wants. Judd Nelson is the exception to the strong cast as John Bender, the criminal student from an abusive home. Although there are some scenes where his vulnerability shines through, Nelson’s John is mostly unlikeable in his destructive and antagonising actions, especially when he is being lewd towards the uncomfortable Claire.

The Breakfast Club is one of John Hughes’s lesser films, but it is worth seeing for the central performances.