Spoilers herein.
Most films are about other films, and few invent new stuff in the film world. So when something new comes around, it is remarkable. The big deal with this film is that it DOES add something to the cinematic vocabulary that wasn't there before.
It references the movies we invent and carry in our minds from high school. `Fast Times at Ridgemont High' was the originator of this idea, but the manner used there never caught on (unless you could Kevin Smith). Here, the idea is to be fantastic, so amazingly so that we agree with the direction of the fantasy. It is precisely the direction we were already going with the exaggerations we play with in our own memories.
A house is not just trashed by a party, it is decimated and defiled. A foreign student isn't just out of touch, he is from outer space and this Earth just gobbles him up. All this frantic fantasy wouldn't work without an emotional anchor. The `rule of twos' says that you need a girl and a boy, here Molly and Hall. These are characters who live in that chaotic mess and who you can see knowing it and devising strategies to get by.
Michael Hall is terrific, but Molly Ringwald interests me more. Nowadays, a director would find a 20's something actress to play a teenager (like dePalma had with `Carrie'). Molly was actually younger than her character but understands the notion of trying to find a lighted path in a funhouse.
She is only asked to do one thing here. Her subsequent career shows she is limited as an actress to this one thing, but she does it so extraordinarily well, it anchors the fantasy. We relate to her and use her a springboard for our own remembrances. No shrinking redhead can appear in film now without referencing her in some way. (I'm thinking directly of Lauren Ambrose here.)
It is a touch of genius. This is her best work, and that of Hughes as well. It added something, something that stuck. Now, many movies are about this one.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Most films are about other films, and few invent new stuff in the film world. So when something new comes around, it is remarkable. The big deal with this film is that it DOES add something to the cinematic vocabulary that wasn't there before.
It references the movies we invent and carry in our minds from high school. `Fast Times at Ridgemont High' was the originator of this idea, but the manner used there never caught on (unless you could Kevin Smith). Here, the idea is to be fantastic, so amazingly so that we agree with the direction of the fantasy. It is precisely the direction we were already going with the exaggerations we play with in our own memories.
A house is not just trashed by a party, it is decimated and defiled. A foreign student isn't just out of touch, he is from outer space and this Earth just gobbles him up. All this frantic fantasy wouldn't work without an emotional anchor. The `rule of twos' says that you need a girl and a boy, here Molly and Hall. These are characters who live in that chaotic mess and who you can see knowing it and devising strategies to get by.
Michael Hall is terrific, but Molly Ringwald interests me more. Nowadays, a director would find a 20's something actress to play a teenager (like dePalma had with `Carrie'). Molly was actually younger than her character but understands the notion of trying to find a lighted path in a funhouse.
She is only asked to do one thing here. Her subsequent career shows she is limited as an actress to this one thing, but she does it so extraordinarily well, it anchors the fantasy. We relate to her and use her a springboard for our own remembrances. No shrinking redhead can appear in film now without referencing her in some way. (I'm thinking directly of Lauren Ambrose here.)
It is a touch of genius. This is her best work, and that of Hughes as well. It added something, something that stuck. Now, many movies are about this one.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.