Some Kind of Wonderful

Some kind of crrrrappp! No, not really, I just couldn't resist. If Steven Spielberg is the guru of the teen set, then John Highes is the Steven Spielberg of the pre-teen set. He didn't direct this picture, but he might as well have. I once heard Hughes (with whom I have had a few problems in the past, as we know) described as the only filmmaker who could construct an entire movie around the question of who was going to ask whom to the prom. (I think the picture in question was “Pretty in Pink”) We now know this to be true, as he constructs this entire movie around a date. Yes, one date. It seems an awful lot of celluloid to waste on such an endeavor, but I guess he must get into what makes teens tick, because the pictures always seem to do well. All that having been said, one must be fair and state that the picture is not painful to watch and has its moments. A flock of attractive performers trots about doing things in a highly predictable fashion (ie. boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy gets girl he really loves) even if none of it is remotely believable.

The lead actor is very good though (the guy who played the deformed kid in “Mask” though I forget his name) but the most intriguing character is the punk artist friend. The women are very attractive, if rather slightly drawn. Not inconsequential fluff, I suppose; perhaps this rises to the level of inconsequential stuff.