Once Upon a Twilight!: Movie Review: Paramount's Pretty In Pink 30th Anniversary!

Pretty In Pink
Director: Howard Deutch
Writers: John Hughes
Starring: Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Henry Dean Stanton, Annie Potts, James Spader and Andrew McCarthy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Official Sites: Facebook | IMDb
Hashtag: #PrettyInPink

Teenager Andie is one of the not-so-popular girls in high school. She usually hangs out with her friends Iona or Duckie. Duckie has always had a crush on her, but now she has met a new guy at school, Blane. He's one of the rich and popular guys but can the two worlds meet?

Today, Pretty in Pink celebrates 30th Anniversary!

Read more about the celebration here.

As a cinephile it's quite shocking when there is a film classic, such as this, that I have yet to see. So when I got the chance to watch Pretty In Pink I jumped and was thrilled to finally witness what everyone else already loves so much.

I finally understand a quote from Gilmore Girls -one of my all time favorite TV shows- when Rory says to Lane "Like James Spader In Pretty In Pink" and I couldn't be more thrilled about that.

Enough about how this completed my life as a cinephile. Let's take a look at the film. A teenage girl who finds herself a modern day Romeo. Torn apart by wealth and the status quo that tends to make high schoolers think twice about who they talk to or hang out with. Andie (Ringwald) takes this to a whole new level. She gets the guy but then makes him realize the huge gap between their families, so she looses him. But it's a 80's film so we all know it has a happy ending.

I loved it. There were jokes that were still relevant - which I liked - and it wasn't too outdated. We're in the era where most of us (myself included) are finding "retro" things, such as vinyls and record players, and buying them. So for Andie to work in a record store seemed very..."hip". Andie and Duckie have known each other since they were kids - or so Andie says in the film. And their sense of style seems to be very similar. Whether this was to show that they came from a lower-class than the rest of the school or it was just how they dressed; I have to say, I actually liked it more.

I also am glad to see that Andie didn't end up with Duckie. Usually when the love interest, in this case Blane, looses the girl she realizes her true love was always the friend she could lean on. So during the pivotal prom scene when Duckie showed up I was almost positive that's who she was going to end up with. And I was a little disappointed. Because their relationship is so one sided that I would've been so disappointed in that ending.

Also - James Spader is such a well known name now that going back and seeing him in this supporting role is kind of amazing to see. And it's also nice to see Molly Ringwald take center stage - especially when you think about the era when this came out. It wasn't completely popular (not that it is very much now either) to have a woman lead, so it's refreshing to see that at least some films from the 80's weren't so stereotypical.