Don't You Forget About Me

"Don't You Forget About Me" A documentary every fan of John Hughes wanted to see made by a group of filmmakers no one wanted to see make it. Sadly the filmmakers involved in the creation of this project possess non of the talent the subject of the film himself embodied. Excellent moments with cast members of Mr. Hughes films and moments with the filmmakers of the documentary you cannot fast forward through quickly enough. John, I promise you I will never forget about you or the joy, tears, laughter and unforgettable lines you left behind. You will always be one of a kind. To the creators of this documentary, I will forget about you I've pressed the submit button.

All the interviews with the old casts/crews/other producers of movies/etc were fine even though most of them were framed terribly, lit worse, and tended to repeat content. But EVERYTHING with the people making the movie was terrible, self-righteous, pompous, trash that nearly made my brain melt. They rambled on and on, filmed themselves pontificating nothing of import, then have the audacity to show up at the man's house with a camera and expect to meet him? Then, when refused they wrote a letter on torn out looseleaf and expected something to come of it? How delusional can you get? Not only were they terrible at doing something as simple as framing an interview, but they put clips from movies in the wrong aspect ratios, had teenagers endlessly say how much the older movies were better than the newer ones (we get the point, don't show this 100 times), but they felt that they were important enough to put on film in such large quantities that it made me not want to watch John Hughes movies anymore! Ugh, stay FAR away from this, just watch the old movies and be glad that the people who made this one haven't had a chance to do anything else.

Finally a documentary about the life of John Hughes. The unfortunate part is that it's made by amateur Canadian (sadly) filmmakers. The interviews with the stars of Hughes' films are the best part of this documentary. The let down is that while Judd Nelson and other stars are present, there are many stars who aren't. Where was Matthew Broderick? The filmmakers also go on an adventure to go to Hughes' home and subsequently interview him. I'll save you the effort.They don't interview Hughes because they're silly amateurs who wrote up their interview questions half an hour earlier in a coffee shop. They also get Hughes' home address from his pizza delivery man.

It's worth watching for the interviews with the cast of Breakfast Club (sans Molly Ringwald, Estevez, Michael Hall), Weird Science (sans Michael Hall), Ferris Bueller (sans Matthew Broderick,Jeffrey Jones (Rooney)). You get the idea. They also interview filmmaker inspired by Hughes like Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and Kevin Smith (Clerks). The celebs don't need much prodding so it's the best part of the documentary.

I still hope someone makes a halfway decent documentary about the life of John Hughes. Hopefully it won't be deluded fan-boys who treat Hughes like he's Jesus Christ or John Lennon (okay, Hughes really is the Gen X Lennon). Hughes is dead but his legacy lives on. The man simply wanted privacy and we'll probably never know how many weirdos showed up at his door telling him how important he is. It's the J.D. Salinger effect.

The fact that Roger Ebert called John Hughes the "philosopher of adolescence" obscures the fact that he was to a larger degree a commercially highly successful writer, producer and also director of mainstream movies in general. Not all of them were great -- I think that Weird Science, for example, is crap (great title though). The documentary works great when we see all those familiar faces from his best movies such as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" thirty years later talking about their joyful memories from when they were young and stars. Then there is a lot of eulogizing from teenagers who say that modern movies don't know what teenagers are about, but teenagers probably always would say that.

To give the documentary a framework, the contributors to the documentary then set off to visit John Hughes at his home in Chicago, ostensibly to ask him to direct another teen movie. This charade is kind of annoying because it changes the focus of the documentary from Hughes to the film team, which we don't really care for all that much. Hughes of course doesn't come out to meet the camera crew, and later returns their letter without any further reply or comment. A short while after, he dies of a heart attack in New York City.

The movies has its ups (the interviews with the actors) and downs (the eulogizing of the "good old times of teen cinema when actors didn't divulge their private life on Facebook"), but overall it was nice to get a bit more insight into John Hughes' work.

Filmmakers Matt Austin Sadowski, Lenny Panzer, Michael Facciolo and Kari Hollend are traveling from Toronto to Illinois in search of their favorite teen movie director John Hughes. His last directing job is Curly Sue in 1991 and he hasn't done an interview since 1999. The four have interviewed many of the actors and fans of his films who lament the state of present day teen movies.

They find the door closed and Hughes would be dead soon after. This would be a great homage to the man except for the slightly-creepy stalking. There is no doubt that the movie needs to interview Hughes. Without that, the worst thing for this movie is a rejection from Hughes. That's what this is. The man has left Hollywood and it would be better to let him exist without the fan stalkers outside his home.

It's nice to see the former Hughes stars and the nice things they have to say about the man. It's obviously made by people who love his work. Jim Kerr from Simple Minds has an interesting story about the song. Also Howard Deutch's story of Hughes writing 50 pages of Ferris Beuller in one night is another nice behind-the-scene tidbit. The movie is short or else I would suggest cutting out the hunting party. I would suggest leaving it out anyways.