An ageless film that transcends all generations.

Rating: 9/10 (17 April 2009)

Of all of John Hughes' classic films of the 1980s about teenagers, The Breakfast Club is the most famous, the most sympathetic and the most endearing. It also is the film that has defined a generation of young people who were growing up in a time where they truly didn't feel that they belonged in any one category but now as they are probably in their 30s or 40s I am sure they can look back on their teen years as better than they thought.
The setup is well-known: five kids with nothing in common, all from different points on the society scale stuck in detention on a Saturday who come to realize that there is more than just stereotypes in the room with them. The other four are people, people who hurt and have feelings and friends and parents they have problems with as well as a domineering principal they cannot relate to. These common bonds are doors, opening to show them the truth not just about each other but about teenagers in general and the true difficulties they all face.
As mentioned before, of all of John Hughes' films, this is the most serious as well as endearing towards its characters. Hughes wisely doesn't talk down to them but puts them all on an equal plane, which forces them to look past the outside caricatures and see the person inside. The acting then brings this out fully, with Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Anthony Michael Hall giving perhaps the best performances of their careers all in this one movie. The performance that sticks out most to me, though, is Judd Nelson as the criminal-mind John Bender. He is the most outrageous, so he breaks the ice between them and really starts the ball rolling. He kind of takes a back seat in the narrative in the third part, but still gives the best performance , one that I think is Oscar-worthy and truly captures the anger and frustration someone in his situation would be feeling constantly.
There are times when it can be hard to watch as these five break down the walls that separate them, but it is all worth it in the end. Not just a classic teen film but also one of the best of the decade, The Breakfast Club still applies today to teenagers who feel out-of-place or misled in their lives. That is the film's greatest achievement: it is an ageless story that transcends all generations and speaks to each of us no matter who or where.