SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984)
Tagline: This is Samantha Baker and today is her 16th birthday. The problem is, nobody remembers.
Tagline: This is Samantha Baker and today is her 16th birthday. The problem is, nobody remembers.
(Comedy, Romance, Dumb Teenage Stuff)[PG]
Would you stop feeling sorry for yourself? It's bad for your complexion.
Would you stop feeling sorry for yourself? It's bad for your complexion.
This movie came out in 1984, literally one of the best years
for movies period (GHOSTBUSTERS, THE KARATE KID, TERMINATOR, DUNE, GREMLINS,
FOOTLOOSE, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, RED DAWN, NEVERENDING STORY, INDIANA JONES
AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, BEVERLEY HILLS COP, PURPLE RAIN, NIGHT OF THE COMET,
THE LAST STARFIGHTER, FIRESTARTER and more). It’s about Samantha, played by Molly Ringwald
and she’s turning 16. She really likes this jock guy at her school and in a
rare twist of fate for a romantic comedy, this one is actually a pretty cool
dude. All this basically happens in a 24 hour period.
Meanwhile, her grandparents try feeling her up. Her brother is a jerk who acts like he’s smoking pretzels sticks to be cool. There is a geek in the movie played by Anthony Michael Hall who for some damn reason wants everyone to think he’s slept with Samantha. Then to top this all off her whole family forgot it was her 16th birthday.
Acting-wise Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall are both epic in this. The writing goes a bit beyond being just non-PC and by even ’80s standards feels just a bit anti-Asian. This is probably the first movie where I ever heard the term “3 sheets to the wind”. That one crazy old lady that was trying to save Carolanne in Poltergeist is in this. Joan Cusack plays a very small role but basically looks the same. This is one of the seemingly hundreds of movies both she and her brother are in.
By today’s standards, this is probably a movie that the PC police would pull out of any kind of circulation at all, but to most who know about it, it stands as a classic coming-of-age movie that really just doesn’t give a crap what people think. That is all well and fine, but because of the weird overtones in this one, I have to drop it to a 4 out of 7.
Meanwhile, her grandparents try feeling her up. Her brother is a jerk who acts like he’s smoking pretzels sticks to be cool. There is a geek in the movie played by Anthony Michael Hall who for some damn reason wants everyone to think he’s slept with Samantha. Then to top this all off her whole family forgot it was her 16th birthday.
Acting-wise Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall are both epic in this. The writing goes a bit beyond being just non-PC and by even ’80s standards feels just a bit anti-Asian. This is probably the first movie where I ever heard the term “3 sheets to the wind”. That one crazy old lady that was trying to save Carolanne in Poltergeist is in this. Joan Cusack plays a very small role but basically looks the same. This is one of the seemingly hundreds of movies both she and her brother are in.
By today’s standards, this is probably a movie that the PC police would pull out of any kind of circulation at all, but to most who know about it, it stands as a classic coming-of-age movie that really just doesn’t give a crap what people think. That is all well and fine, but because of the weird overtones in this one, I have to drop it to a 4 out of 7.
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