The Hughes Effect

I was introduced to the films of John Hughes by Kevin Smith. His obsession with the filmmaker made Mr. Hughes seem cool, like where cool came from.

This mildly piqued my interest in the brat pack films, but I never actually went out of my way to watch any. I told a friend this and she almost attacked me. She threw several DVDs at me including Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles and ordered me to watch them immediately. So I did.

Well, I instantly fell in love with Molly Ringwald. Then I sat back and started to think about the films. In them, Hughes was able to convey the confusion and insecurities of teenagers in a way I hadn't really seen before: with brutal honesty. Hughes had a way to cut out the fat and the grey-areas and get right to the crux of teenage emotion like few filmmakers could.

Upon further research I learned that Hughes also wrote the National Lampoon: Vacation movies and also the Home Alone movies. Obviously--beyond his ability to tap into the teenage psyche--he had the ability to tickle the funny bone.

To me, though, his greatest masterwork had the be Ferris Bueller's Day Off. This is one of the funniest, most inspiring movies I've ever seen. It was about freedom, and bravado, and doing the things we are wish we could do. Like Catcher in the Rye, Ferris Bueller made me want to stick my middle finger up to society and do things my way. And all this while making me laugh riotously. It takes a gifted man to make a film like that.

Thank you Mr. Hughes, you will be missed.