Pretty in Pink (1986)
Directed by Howard Deutch
Andie is an outcast, hanging out either with her older boss, who owns the record store where she works, or her quirky high school classmate Duckie, who has a crush on her. When one of the rich and popular kids at school, Blane, asks Andie out, it seems too good to be true. As Andie starts falling for Blane, she begins to realize that dating someone from a different social sphere is not easy.
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What critics compared Pretty in Pink to
But the film it reminded me most of was Pretty in Pink , which first-time director Greta Gerwig—the actress best known for Frances Ha and 20th Century Women—is clearly paying homage to (there’s even a scene where Lady Bird wears a pink prom dress).
Lady Bird’s pink hair, repurposed prom dresses and self-proclaimed identity as living on the “wrong side of the tracks” may scream homage to “Pretty in Pink,” but this is a resoundingly modern, assuredly female-voiced comedy that portends more great things to come from Gerwig behind the camera.
Little wonder there are subtle echoes of “Pretty in Pink” throughout, from not one but two pink-hued frocks and a pair of unsuitable suitors to a dad who is down on his luck (playwright Tracy Letts) and a batch of pop oldies on the soundtrack (Alanis Morissette and Dave Matthews Band loom large).
Lady Bird and her mother stop bickering for a moment in the thrift store when they suddenly unite in the ecstasy of finding the perfect prom dress (inspired, Gerwig told me, by “Pretty in Pink”).
Both performances are remarkable, brittle and diffident in wholly original ways that distinguish Gerwg’s film from The Edge of Seventeen , Pretty in Pink , and other canonical coming-of-age works that attempt to honestly reckon with issues of privilege.
Mixing the introspective resilience of Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (which Gerwig co-wrote) with the whimsical emotional dramatics of a 1980s John Hughes comedic melodrama like Pretty in Pink or Some Kind of Wonderful , the movie never hits a false note, each beat of the story building one upon the next to produce a melodious coming of age symphony that’s absolutely sensational.
Taylor and screenwriter Scotty Landes are clearly aiming for an edgy John Hughes vibe in the film's many party scenes (the Hughes-penned Pretty in Pink is even referenced in the dialogue), but with the exception of Maggie, the teens are too one-dimensional for us to care about.
“The male lead was a drip, but it doesn’t matter!” is a line I feel like I’ve subconsciously been telling myself since Pretty in Pink, or really any number of Brat Pack–era classics that our young romance-obsessed heroine Lara Jean (Lana Condor) would probably know by heart.
(We don’t need you to repeatedly have characters reference Pretty in Pink to see its influence.)
And if the title recalls the British romantic-comedy smash “Love, Actually,” it’s for good reason, although “Love, Simon” has more in common with those cherished but overrated films of the late John Hughes (“Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club”) than those of Richard Curtis.
Love, Simon doesn't quite reach the heights of teen movie classics like Say, Anything..., Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Clueless, Mean Girls or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but it comes close enough to be one of the best American romantic teen comedies in recent memory.
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Don't be fooled, this is no censor-baiting Larry Clarke ( Bully , Kids ) or Harmony Korine ( Spring Breakers ) style expose, but rather something more akin to Catherine Hardwick's 2003 tale Thirteen, or the beloved John Hughes movies of the 1980s ( Pretty in Pink , Sixteen Candles ).
Elsie Fisher plays Kayla, an eighth-grader on the cusp of graduation being raised by her single father, Mark (Josh Hamilton), another in a long line of well-meaning single dads raising girls in teen movies, from Pretty In Pink to Not Another Teen Movie .
And Lucy’s problem is the eternal Pretty in Pink conundrum; does being a penniless loser rule a guy out?
I noticed how Lucy gets along well with her boss, Violet (Marin Ireland), at the matchmaking agency, similar to how Andie connected with Iona at the record shop in… nah.
This is nothing new as high school comedies—from Pretty in Pink (1986) to Netflix’s Sex Education —have filtered coming of age through the glossy filter of Gatsbyesque parties.
His taste in hats echoes Pretty In Pink’s Ducky.
Despite boasting many scenarios and set-pieces straight out of the John Hughes ( Pretty in Pink , The Breakfast Club ) or "story set on a single night" playbook (think Go, or American Graffiti ), Booksmart is at pains to reflect today's teens in all their complicated, multi-dimensional, chaotic glory.
It’s another film in the grand tradition of right-around-graduation movies ( Can’t Hardly Wait , Dazed and Confused , Pretty in Pink, 10 Things I Hate About You ), but Booksmart gives off especially distinct Superbad vibes, both in story structure and its general theme of growing up.
With the best of intentions but few regrets, Nadine would probably devour a definitive teen icon such as Molly Ringwald's Andie Walsh from Pretty in Pink , John Hughes' 1986 masterpiece.
A terrific teen comedy with the traditional feel of John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, The Edge of Seventeen stars Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine, a 17-year-old high-school misfit whose best and only friend starts to date her smug, perfect older brother.
And the Lord did then give us Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, and lo, it was good.
That was the heyday of John Hughes: Molly Ringwald was Pretty in Pink and Matthew Broderick would soon take the day off as Ferris Bueller.
As Mr. Brumer, the school’s long defeated English teacher, Harrelson ranks up there with such unlikely and welcome teen movie supporting players as Harry Dean Stanton in “Pretty in Pink” and the tag team of Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci in “Easy A.” Mr. Brumer is Nadine’s barely-there rock — the fellow sadsack who will sit there and silently sit through her epic complaint jags, piping up only to offer deflating non-advice or a withering quip.
Like “Pretty in Pink,” Craig’s obvious inspiration, Nadine is presently presented with a love-struck, tongue-tied nerd she refuses to give the time of day.
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Meanwhile, in a storyline that begins like Pretty in Pink and then becomes a monster hunt, Mike’s type-A older sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) teams up with Will’s brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), whose creepy vibe and shaggy hair obscure his heart of gold.
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by Dustin – Farrah Fawcett hairspray hair and all – standing at the sidelines of the dance floor, for all the world a pre-pubescent Duckie from Pretty in Pink.
Aboveground, Mike’s sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) is following a more “Pretty in Pink” storyline until it goes John Carpenter, which eventually teams her up with Will’s brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton).
Ellie doesn’t just live on the wrong side of the tracks, she lives on the tracks, since her depressive immigrant father (Edwin Chu, channeling Harry Dean Stanton in “Pretty in Pink”), works as the stationmaster.