Review of Sixteen Candles (1984) by Zachary E — 16 May 2016

There are a lot of these coming-of-age John Hughes films from the 80s that I never saw. So when I saw an opportunity to catch Sixteen Candles on Netflix I figured it was time to do some homework and see what I missed.

Well, after watching this movie I'm starting to think I didn't miss all that much. The beginning sets the film up well, because I was totally interested in this teenage girl who has to deal with the fact that her entire family forgot her birthday.

In fact, I was impressed with how that one hook had me on the edge of my seat initially, wondering when the realization would hit and what the fallout would be. But apparently John Hughes didn't care about that as much as he cared about the partying habits of American teenagers.

The movie takes a huge left turn once it cuts away from Molly Ringwald, which it does way too often. There was even a 30+ minute chunk of the film where the main character was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the story I thought I was watching disappears and is replaced by high school hi-jinks, offensive racial/sexual stereotypes, and date rape?!? Then, once your attention is diverted enough so that you no longer care, the big tension of the film is resolved with a whimper.

The movie almost rights the ship by the end, if you're capable of getting past all the offensive stuff, but it never reaches the level of quality that the early scenes promised. Perhaps if I saw Sixteen Candles in the 80s when I was closer to the characters' ages I might enjoy it more, but watching it today was definitely a disappointment.