John Hughes' Classic Tale of Teen Angst

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2015)

Writer-director John Hughes continued his foray into teen angst comedy with the 1985 winner The Breakfast Club, a warm and winning look at five high school students trapped together in detention on a Saturday.
We watch as these students get to know each other and eventually bond because during regular school hours, they pretty much navigate in separate orbits.
Hughes' cinematic muse, Molly Ringwald plays Claire, a spoiled and popular princess who is in detention because she ditched class to go shopping. Claire spends the majority of detention fighting an attraction to John Bender (Judd Nelson), a thug who spends every Saturday in detention. Emilio Estevez plays Andy, a jock with father issues and Anthony Michael Hall plays Brian, a straight-A geek who seems to think being in detention is kind of cool. Ally Sheedy completes the quintet as Allison, a space cadet whose reason for being in detention is the funniest of them all.
Despite a sort of music video directorial approach, Hughes screenplay compliments as we get to watch a bonding between these students occur, but not too quickly and pretty realistically.
The performances are first rate, with standout work from Nelson and Hall. Mention should also be made of Paul Gleason, appropriately slimy as Mr. Vernon, the teacher supervising detention, who apparently has his own issues.
This film was a box office smash and was pretty much an instant classic upon release. Teen angst has rarely been this much fun.