Movie Notes: PRETTY IN PINK

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: next in a series of brief notes on films I've recently seen. Also: SPOILER ALERT.] PRETTY IN PINK (1986) SUMMARY Story about Andie: a 18-year-old girl from a working-class, single-parent home, who is wishing for love, personified in "richie" Blane. Andie and Blane have class-related clashes but both eventually rise above class warfare to find true love together. MEANING OF THE TITLE It's the way Andie is identified as different from the other typical high school students she crosses paths with. She wears pink all the time, drives a pink car, is given pink dresses as gifts. One of the wealthy-class girls comments, while shopping for a prom dress, about how she "looks terrible in blue" at the same time Andie is browsing for dress ideas. MOST SIGNIFICANT REVELATION I was reminded that parents of teenagers in the 80's likely had their coming-of-age in the 60's. I somehow forgot about that, but after seeing the numerous exchanges between Andie and her father and her boss, this fog had lifted. BEST CHARACTER JOURNEY The callous in the crowd would say that Iona "sold out" at the close of the film to date her successful guy. The jaded would read too much into it and say she "gave up." I don't know which way I'm leaning. Perhaps I'm noting this here just because I think that Annie Potts was suuuuper cute and reinvented herself with nearly each screen appearance. WORST TELEGRAPHED MOMENT Ducky's lip-synching segment of Otis Redding is cringe-worthily terrible. I have a feeling I did the same kind of stuff when I was in high school and had no idea of how ridiculous I appeared. Goota give it to John Cryer for total commitment. However, Ducky redeems himself at the high school prom near the close of the film when he spontaneously breaks the fourth wall, causing me to laugh out loud in the theater and wonder if I, once again, appeared completely ridiculous. UNSUNG HERO Harry Dean Stanton as Andie's father. Dude has taken some lumps and spends a lot of time guarding that knowledge from his daughter. CINEMATOGRAPHY Some undoubtedly CLASSIC 80's vignettes are here, reminding people what white pop culture looked like in the 80's: record shops; lone, miserable boys sitting in the rain (John Cryer is a fair replacement for John Cusack in this regard); blazers and high-waisted pants like in -Miami Vice-; white suburban high-school kid parties; repeated extreme close-ups of car cassette decks... It's an aesthetic that once you see it, you will never forget it. I wonder if the cinematographer and director had the notion that these kinds of visuals would establish an iconic legacy for "going retro" in so many television shows and series today. WHAT'S THIS FILM ABOUT? John Hughes wrote a fun film about finding love, and how class consciousness is just as superficial as the dilemma of who's gonna ask you out to prom. However, your prom date doesn't dictate federal, state, or corporate policy, so while the unfairness of high school will eventually dissipate, the reality of the haves and have-nots is persistent well into adulthood. At least, when we're in high school, we don't know that yet. If you keep that in mind, then this is a cute love story.