Don't You Forget About John Hughes

Journalistic ethics pretty much preclude shilling for friends, and that's as it should be. But while I try to observe a journalistic code of conduct on this blog, the fact is that it's a blog. My blog. And dammit, when my friends do something cool and legitimately shill-worthy, I'm gonna shill for it.

Which is why I'm urging anyone who comes across this post to visit this blog, recently started by the producers of Don't You Forget About Me, a documentary about director John Hughes, the influence of his teen films and his reclusive life since dropping out of Hollywood almost two decades ago. I'm fortunate enough to know Kari Hollend, one of the producers of the movie and a name I look forward to dropping for years to come as her career builds.

I've seen the movie and it's a blast. Structured around the producers' road trip to Hughes' house in an attempt to get the writer-director to participate, DYFAM includes interviews of cast and crew from classic 80s teen films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. From these sources, the viewer gets funny and fascinating insight into the making of these movies and the mind of Hughes. Meanwhile, interviews of subjects like film critic Roger Ebert, director Kevin Smith and current-day high school students prove one of the filmmakers' main points - that Hughes managed to capture some fundamental essence of teenagerdom that allowed his movies to transcend their dated 80s window-dressing.

Just as DYFAM is a window into the John Hughes universe, the filmmakers' blog is a window into the process of making the documentary. On that level, it's an interesting site to visit even if you're not a Hughes junkie. And if you are, the filmmakers reward you with extra interview footage that didn't make the final cut of the movie. That final cut will soon be available for purchase through the blog website, but you should go there now to get a little taste. 

As for me, I'm not as much of a Hughes acolyte as my friend and her fellow documentarians - I haven't even seen Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink, and for my money nothing in the teen flick genre ever topped Fast Times at Ridgemont High - but Ferris and Breakfast Club alone constitute a Hall-of-Fame resume.