Aug/091
I’m A Kid, That’s My Job
I'm very sad about the passing of John Hughes. It makes me mad that this comes fresh off the tails of the Michael Jackson hysteria, because now everyone's all cynical about talking celebrity death on the Internet and has already moved. John Hughes' work meant so much more to me, in that way that you forget how much it impacted you until you really think about where something comes from and you realize it was a scene you saw in a movie or a line from one of his films. That's how much it was a part of you, you just always assumed it was there.
And who will replace him? Who will capture that kind of normalcy, that innocence? Does it even exist anymore? I do know that his movies framed my ideas of what love was, of being an outsider, of what it felt like to yearn for something you couldn't have, of staying friends with them anyway.
That being said, my favorite John Hughes movie, probably because of my age when the movie came out, is Uncle Buck with John Candy. I watched it over and over again, like kids do.
And my second favorite, which I know he only wrote, is Some Kind Of Wonderful. What's great is even Lea Thompson's "hot girl" character has layers to her. A similar movie made today would have just turned her into nothing but a sex object, of that I am sure. But, Watts! Watts was so cool. She was kind of an asshole, but we rooted for her, we wanted her to win, we knew she was the right one.
So, here's to you, John Hughes. Here's to teenage crushes, heartbreak, laughs, Chicago, high school outsiders, detention, forgotten birthdays, breakfast clubs, and hope that people continue watching your movies. I know I will be.