Wednesday, August 12, 2020

FTM 551 - PRETTY IN PINK

If you leave Patrick and Robyn, don't look back.



Download this episode here. (35.9 MB)

Listen to F This Movie! on Spotify and on Stitcher.

Also discussed this episode: Original Cast Album: Company (1970), Howard (2020), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Radioactive (2018), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Host (2020), I Used to Go Here (2020), Lucky Numbers (2000), Scoob! (2020)

3 comments:

  1. Great job on this podcast. It's cool having different takes on a film.

    Hughes did paint in broad strokes, but I feel like he captured a high school experience that felt familiar to me. The social cliques sure seemed the same.

    As you noted that soundtrack was a big deal at the time, and still is pretty great.

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  2. I think I have all the same thoughts/opinions as both of you on Pretty in Pink. I even want to see Steph and Andie together, and yet...would that be good? Yikes. But I still kinda want to see. I agree with Robyn, characters are not likable, motives don't make sense, but I'm with Patrick on having some affection for it, too. Plus I think high school love is usually dumb and nonsensical, so they're all forgiven for liking the wrong people.

    Really surprised to hear Ducky has a following? Team Ducky really? Could they make a less attractive character? I feel bad for thinking he's unattractive because I don't believe ppl are/aren't attractive based on their physical appearances, but I cannot put my finger on why...exactly he's so awful. I'm afraid I'm going to sound old fashioned. "Not manly enough". "Too frenetic". "Over-emotional". But there is a real thing there - Ducky is so *much* that he comes across as a burden, not a support. (I'm trying to think if I"m being sexist here...) Anyway, in contrast, at least Blane is calm and wants to hear what she has to say. Even STEPH really wants to hear what she has to say. You can tell Steph actually hangs on her every word.

    Glad they didn't un-friendzone Ducky, which would have been so unrealistic. They did that in Empire Records with Corey. At the end Liv Tyler "realizes" she loves him, too. That always stuck with me bc many times in life I've WANTED to un-friendzone a guy, even guys who are attractive in their own right, but it's not that simple.

    Pretty Pink is my fav of the John Hughes movies. I'm sure I'm alone in saying this, but I hate the Breakfast Club (16 Candles is OK bc Anthony Michael Hall makes me laugh - I would date that kid). In Breakfast Club each kid is SO distinct and stereotype. I just don't remember high school being that simple. For me HS was more like Freaks and Geeks. There were cliques but they weren't THAT distinct. So anyway, it feels cliche to me personally, and Bender, who I was hoping would be rebel-hot, is kind of just weird. Oh well.

    Has anyone watched the videos on the common movie tropes from The Take on Youtube? "The Mean Girl", "The Bad Boy", "The Girl Next Door", "The Nice Guy" and many more. What's great about these analyses is you recognize so many of them from your favorite movies, and they really show how far we've come since then, especially women, and especially very recently. We've come a long way.

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  3. I am going to enter a counter-argument to the above post for TEAM DUCKY! I felt like in high school I was Ducky in many ways - I styled myself in vintage clothes that I thought were retro Monkees cool, and I hung on girls just like he does with Andie. I was way TOO MUCH and over the top. The only reason I like him not ending up with her is like me he was probably gay. I mean honestly to me they seem like a platonic relationship that occurs between a guy not yet out of the closet and his favorite girl. Am I projecting? Perhaps so... but many of my friends told me again and again "You know what? You were Ducky in high school!" He's my favorite character in the film for those reasons... lol.

    I totally get why they changed the ending because Blane and Andie do inherently have better chemistry. I think everyone just wanted to see that happen, and you route for it. Because they are the Romeo and Juliet - two houses alike in dignity but contrasted in income. It provides a more interesting pair on many levels.

    This film felt so much like my high school. We had a program where we bused in tons of kids from less wealthy areas while the neighborhood around the school was filled with those suburban McMansion type houses and country clubs. It always felt quite real to me...

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