Even genuinely great movies like Amy HeckerlingвЂ™s Fast Times at Ridgemont High had an emphasis on shock value (that film featured R-rated nudity and a hard-hitting abortion plotline). The teen film was, at that point, rooted more in sensationalism, with oversexed comedies like LosinвЂ™ It, PorkyвЂ™s, and Risky Business dominating the genre. When Hughes started production on The Breakfast Club in March 1984 with an indie-movie budget of $1 million (about $2.5 million adjusted for inflation), his debut feature Sixteen Candles wouldnвЂ™t even hit theaters for another two months.

Wes AndersonвЂ™s Whimsy Goes Too Far David Sims But The Breakfast Club undeniably laid the foundation for a whole new kind of teen drama-one motivated less by plot, and more by mood. Watching HughesвЂ™s foundational tale of adolescent angst more than 30 years on, itвЂ™s easy to be put off by the homogeneity and privilege of its main characters: five suburban white kids in Chicago who spend the entire film fretting over their social status, overbearing parents, and existential fears. вЂњHe gave me a template,вЂќ Singleton has said, according to David KampвЂ™s essay in the new Criterion Collection release of the movie, which came out this month. Six years later, Singleton made Boyz n the Hood, a teen drama about growing up in South Central Los Angeles he cites the Breakfast Club writer-director John Hughes as a major influence. They were just teens finding their way into adulthood-like I was.вЂќ вЂњI didnвЂ™t feel alienated by the fact that they were all white kids. вЂњThe various characters were teenage archetypes, but they were rooted in genuine human problems,вЂќ he later said. When John Singleton-the groundbreaking filmmaker behind movies like Boyz n the Hood, and the first African American to get a Best Director Oscar nomination-first saw The Breakfast Club in 1985, he was reviewing it for his high-school newspaper.

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