Sixteen Candles Review

Sixteen Candles

By Danae Martin

SIXTEEN CANDLES is an aspiring and funny movie about the worst things that can happen to any girl on her sixteenth birthday. Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald), a suburban Chicago girl, is running through a living nightmare. She has finally turned sixteen and no one remembers! On the day of her birthday, everyone is too concentrated on trying to marry off her older sister to an uncouth Italian hood; her grandparents come down and take over, with one grandmother shouting “Look! She’s finally got her boobies!” and the other sleeping in her room, she has the biggest crush on the best-looking guy in school, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), and she gets stuck in the middle of the Geek Ted Farmer’s (Anthony Michael Hall) schemes.

John Hughes created movies for the teenage eye because he knew everything about the average teenage. He knew what they wore, how couples walked, the crazy lunatic bus drivers, the boring study halls, and the notes that were passed from one student to another. He knew how they conversed, how the partied, and the differences and grade levels. He demonstrates the highs and horrors and teen embarrassment, mainly in the cases of Samantha Baker and “Farmer Ted”.

The film has a somewhat split-personality. At some points in the film, it is similar to the crude and silly aspects of the Farrelly Brothers (screenwriters). There is the case where Sam’s sister is on a muscle relaxer high during her wedding, Joan Cusack desperately tries to use a water fountain while wearing her head brace, and then there is the foreign exchange student, Long Duk Dong, who is a character throughout.

Sixteen Candles contains all the scenes that a teenage film needs. The make out session, the dance, and outrageous party, the good-looking guy who breaks up with his girlfriend for the unpopular girl, and the guy who is in love with that girl. In this case it is Ted Farmer. It all starts on the bus, but when the dance comes the plot...