Lucas

This is a great, great film. Quite possibly one of the most accurate depictions of high school life I've ever seen. Lucas is funny, touching, and insightful. Corey Haim gives a truly winning performance as the tormented title character and makes the audience sympathetic towards him. Charlie Sheen, Kerri Green, and Winona Ryder all leave their mark in this film as his few friends and the rest of the cast works nicely. The great thing about this movie is that, although billed as a romantic comedy, it is more of a drama that explores the difficulty of being an outsider, this film doesn't give in to teen-flick cliches, it is almost relentless in terms of causing the audience to feel sorry for Lucas and at times it's downright scary. This film really made me think about how stupid high school social structures can be, it really is that bad for some people, in fact it's worse. I think this film is an emotional, moral masterpiece. I hate high school, I love Lucas. If you want to see high school for what it really is...skip "Ferris Bueller" or "10 things I hate about you", see Lucas, good stuff.

This film is becoming a classic because of the fine, early performances from Winona Ryder, Charlie Sheen, Corey Haim, even Courtney Thorne-Smith of "Ally McBeal".

It is a unique movie with a love triangle where the viewer wants both guys (Sheen and Haim) to get the girl. But of course both can not.

"Lucas" is about the truths of life and relationships, and how the teenage years bring them to the surface. Another interesting element is the use of insects for symbolism.

During the summer vacation, the fourteen year-old Lucas Bly (Corey Haim) meets the sixteen year-old newcomer in town Maggie (Kerri Green) and they become best friends. Lucas is an intelligent boy that loves bugs and shows the mansion where he lives to Maggie. When classes begin, Maggie learns that Lucas is not a popular student but an outcast nerd at school and bullied by the football players. The football captain Cappie (Charlie Sheen) protects Lucas because the boy helped him when he was ill. Soon Lucas has a crush on Maggie but she falls in love with Cappie, while Lucas' schoolmate Rina (Winona Ryder) loves him. When Maggie joins the cheerleaders, Cappie's girlfriend Alise (Courtney Thorne-Smith) becomes jealous of her and she ends the relationship with Cappie. Meanwhile Lucas joins the football team expecting to impress Maggie. During a game, Lucas is hurt and Maggie finds that he lives in a trailer with his alcoholic father. What will happen to Lucas?

"Lucas" is a touching classic from the wonderful 80's, with a pleasant and sensitive story of unrequited first love. Corey Haim has a magnificent performance in the role of a boy with no family that falls in love with an older girl. The difference of two years for a fourteen year-old boy is indeed too much. Another attraction is to see Winona Ryder, Charles Sheen and others very young in the beginning of career. After almost thirty years, "Lucas" is still a delightful heartbreaking film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Inocência do Primeiro Amor" ("The Innocence of the First Love")

Note: On 10 April 2019 I saw this film again.

I saw Lucas for the first time today... more than 20 years since it first came out. I have to admit, I'm a huge 80's fan and even though I was just a kid during the 80's I consider myself to be pretty familiar with the pop culture of the time. However, for some odd reason, I never got around to seeing Lucas. I have to say that, despite the fact that this movie is so old and I've seen movies with similar plots since, this movie still made me teary-eyed. I absolutely adored Corey Haim when I was a young girl and his role as the sweet, vulnerable, yet highly intelligent nerd gave me the fuzzies... the same way he used to when I was young. He, along with the rest of the cast (including Kerri Green, Winona Ryder, and Charlie Sheen), gave a great performance... typical of the 80's teen flicks (with an over-abundance of clichés), but, nonetheless, touching. It's definitely up there with the all time classics: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink... and any of the flicks including the Brat Pack. Definitely worth seeing if you're in a nostalgic mood and want to revisit the old days of knee-high tube socks and head bands.

There's something extraordinary about "Lucas"; something that makes it impossible for us to reject it. We have always watched movies like "Lucas" along the ages, I have watched plenty of movies like it; and have disliked them all. Not that "Lucas" is great, but you know what I say about 'Love Actually"? If you express it with this film, "Lucas" is good as a movie, but almost brilliant as a family inspirational picture.

What happens in the film is like a tale…An old tale of a boy who is not accepted in his everyday environment and tries to live with it. The hero of this tale is the special Lucas, played by Corey Haim as a boy who is definitely stranger and more intelligent than the rest of his companions; it's something you notice immediately.

Or at least Maggie (Kerri Green) notices it. She spends the entire summer with him and when school starts he doesn't know what's going to happen. Logically, he has his two or three nerdy best friends that are there for him, included a girl named Rina (the first role Winona Ryder ever played, with 15 years old or so…Gorgeous), who obviously likes him and follows his look while he is searching for Maggie on the first day of classes.

It's not that Lucas dislikes his friends, but that he had sensed something different when knowing Maggie. But Maggie is older, and interested in older guys like Cappie (a very young Charlie Sheen), for example. In a very good scene where Cappie takes care of Lucas, Maggie thanks him and they both talk about Lucas…My brother thought Maggie was in love with Lucas, but I told him that she had a crush on Cappie…The movie understands the characters so well that it turned out the way I said, of course.

The language these kids deal with, the situations they live are real. David Seltzer, who directed and wrote the film, puts strong and hurtful words in his screenplay so they generate an impact in the picture's most moving moments. "But that doesn't turn you on, does it?", Lucas tells Maggie…That's not the kind of phrase you'd commonly listen a 13-year old say, even less on a film. That's the way Seltzer shapes his characters, in a way that we believe everything they declare and in a way that the only thing that becomes predictable in the movie is the storyline itself.

A known writer, Seltzer has directed few things. As a director, he also preserves his characters. Watch a beautiful scene where the choir is singing and the camera goes from side to side showing each of the main characters looking at the person he likes, but not one of them being corresponded with the look. That's perfect directing, even more in a film of this type…So classic: the simple edition (Priscilla Nedd-Friendly, "Down to Earth"), the touchy score (Dave Grusin, "The Goonies", "Hope Floats", "Selena").

What I'm trying to say is that, to Seltzer, is all about the movie. The actors don't show off, Corey Haim is the hero but not the star. It's about the movie; a piece with an absolutely clichéd resolution that we find inspiring and therefore embrace.