Sixteen Candles

Viewed in
2011

Formats
HDTV

Premise
Molly Ringwald stars in the John Hughes classic about an American girl's 16th birthday gone horribly awry.

Loved
Cute charm, young John Cusack.

Thoughts
One word comes to mind: adorable.

I enjoyed the silly, 1980's sitcom-like sense of humor, all the characters were likable (especially Anthony Michael Hall as the geek), and it perfectly captured the high school experience of that time, including the insecurities and pressures.

Watching it now, there's the unintentional comedy of its homophobic and racist jokes.  Considering these themes came from an ignorant time, I just giggled and thought "aw, how cute".  As a UHF fan, it was amusing to see that Gedde Watanabe just specializes in annoying Asian roles.

Personally, I never knew one of my favorite actors, John Cusack, was in it.  I actually squee'd at how young and cute he was.  It helped that he was very funny and sold Hall's dorky sidekick effortlessly.  I should've realized his sister, Joan, would be in it too.

It lacked the heart of The Breakfast Club, but Sixteen Candles held up easily because of its irresistible charm.

Random
The score included the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra.  I couldn't find any research to indicate this came from my hometown.