The Breakfast Club

• Tickets

Movie Details

• Genre: Drama
• Release Date: 1985-05-15 Nationwide
• Running Time: 97 min.
• Director: John Hughes
• Cast: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Paul Gleason, John Kapelos, Ron Dean, Tim Gamble, Mercedes Hall
• Producer: John Hughes, Ned Tanen
• Writer: John Hughes
• Distributor: Universal Pictures
• Official Site: The Breakfast Club Official Site

Attempting to dismantle teenage social politics, John Hughes also oversimplified them. I mean, what if you weren't even close to being a jock (Emilio Estevez), a nut case (Ally Sheedy), a prom queen (Molly Ringwald), a nerd (Anthony Michael Hall), or a criminal (Judd Nelson), and none of their problems quite matched your own? And what if the central message--that teenagers have more in common than not, beneath the labels--wasn't especially revelatory? As I recall, you just shrugged and enjoyed the ride, feeling like a fraud but still wanting to shout Rawgh! when Judd Nelson threw his fist in the air at the end. Sixteen years later, The Breakfast Club is somehow better than it was--indeed, the best movie John Hughes (or any of its stars) ever made. Whether or not it succeeds as a manifesto for the generation that would, more or less, become Generation X is debatable. But as a piece of ensemble acting, delicate direction, and standard-bearing in the timeless, sacred battle of youth against idiot age, it holds up shockingly well. Plus, it's the source of The Original Molly Ringwald Dance--copied by many, perfected by few--and that great Simpsonian kiss-off: Eat My Shorts. (Kate Sullivan)