Sixteen Candles

Writer/director John Hughes began his celebrated, if brief, tenure as the Contemporary Bard of Teenage angst with 1984's SIXTEEN CANDLES.  His efforts were a relief from the waves of youth film idiocy that had plagued theaters and cable since the late '70s, many if not all trying to emulate NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE.  As you may know, Hughes wrote for National Lampoon magazine in the '70s and there demonstrated as lascivious a sense of humor as anyone, but also a quieter wit, one which occasionally distinguished his movies.

Occasionally.  Make no mistake, SIXTEEN CANDLES and the other Hughes dramedies all have moments of juvenile and crass humor.  Here, there is a long sequence at a party (parents out of town, natch) that, if described, makes everything sound excessive and stupid.  Like when plates slip off a weight bar and crash through a few floors, smashing into a wine cellar.  Or a pizza on a turntable.  A girl's hair gets caught in a door.  A guy is trapped under a glass table. A station wagon crashes into a parked car, but the latter's occupants don't notice 'cause they're making out.  Etc. Etc.

There is an also exchange student named Long Duk Dong, who is a walking caricature that has drawn plenty of controversy (moreso in these very sensitive times).  There are jokes about a girl's underpants - one character flashes them to a group of horny freshmen in the boys' room during a school dance.  A drunk prom queen type ends up spending the night with the central nerd in someone's father's Rolls Royce.  Dong, whose name when spoken is always followed by a gong on the soundtrack, also ends up drunk and flails around on the ground to the great embarrassment of his hosts.  Prior, when one of them calls the police to report Dong missing and offers a description of him, answers the dispatcher with '"No, he's not retarded!"

Sound horrible? Like just another just another '80s teen epic? I don't know how those of you who were not teenagers in the mid 80s will react to SIXTEEN CANDLES.  Many older folks either were apathetic or shook their heads in disbelief.  Some of those who weren't born yet watch it with disbelieving eyes these days.  I don't care.  I was fifteen in 1984 and Hughes struck a chord with me and millions of my Generation X brethren.  These were and are my teen movies, even if I also readily embrace and identify with films from and about other eras like ...if and DAZED AND CONFUSED.

What's so special about these movies? Their plots are as old as Drama itself - those with low esteem and impaired social standing crave the approval of their peers.  The stories were often predictable, and resolutions seemed pat or even undermined the personalities of the characters (see Allison in THE BREAKFAST CLUB).  But.....at the time, the insight Hughes gave his characters was a bit different than that of the average filmic teen.  Wit and intelligence shared real estate with the more silly moments.   They coexisted - there really couldn't be one without the other in this universe, one that was so familiar yet also fantastic and foreign in many ways.  This changed a bit with the later, more serious PRETTY IN PINK and SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL, which were written but not directed by Hughes.

I've failed to mention the plot of SIXTEEN CANDLES.  You don't know? Samantha (Molly Ringwald) is turning sixteen but her family is so wrapped up in preparing for her older sister's wedding that is forgotten.  To make matters worse, that guy she likes, Jake (Michael Schoeffling), the one who has the house party, seems not to notice her.  Unlike "Farmer Ted"(Anthony Michael Hall), a supergeek, who won't leave her alone.

The movie is played mostly for laughs, and Hughes demonstrates great timing, as does his cast, including John Cusack in an early role (his sister Joan is in this, too). Riotous funny at times.  Yes, even the barbs at the mentally changed, the Asian, the virginal, etc.  You do remember that Hughes wrote for the Lampoon?  Take no prisoners satire.  We seemed to have forgotten about comedy.  Often the "offensive" material shines the necessarily light of recognition on its targets, which can (and should) include all of us.  If we can't laugh at ourselves, we really do have nothing.

But Hughes is equally deft with the sober moments, the recognizable loneliness in the shadows of a high school gym.  Those moments are there, and make SIXTEEN CANDLES more than just a Clearasil wallow.