Don't You Forget About Me

Critics attack this movie like a dog attacks a piece of steak. But, i'm here to say that this movie was rather good. A documentary of Jon Hughes that was long over due, made by some amateurs. Amateurs. that doesn't mean the movie is going to be grade A material. But it was put together nicely, clips, pictures, interviews. so most the interviews didn't have the biggest actors, but they weren't gonna waste there time searching for interviews from actors when the movie is about JON HUGHES. It is also about a few kids trying to get an interview, thats the plot, and the movie also had a good number of actor and director interviews, who talk about Jon Hughes, his feelings, his actions, friends, family. It reaches the teen crowd to urge them to watch his movies, and compare them to these new teen movies, to see what is better. Kutos to these kids who tried to get an interview, the movie wasn't perfect, but it wasn't boring. it keeps minds interested, and hopeful.

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.

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.

John Hughes is a personal hero of mine, so I was desperate to see this film, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed, mainly because the contributions from his movie stars, from Ally Sheedy to Alan Ruck, were respectful, sincere and full of adoration. All of them wondering what happened to a man who they considered a dear friend.

I had to think though, if these actors and producers were such good friends of Hughes, wouldn't he have wanted to stay in touch? Wouldn't he have missed their company as much as they claim to miss his?

One aspect of this film that I found utterly pointless was the group of wannabe film-makers, documenting their attempts to talk to the man himself. It was kind of like a secondary unneeded documentary mcguffin. It did give a glimpse in to their passion for this project though, but I found their street walking interviews with kids who obviously have no idea what they're talking about to be tacky and last-minute.

This movie being made while Hughes was still alive, provided a sense of longing optimism for the return of Hughes, as the actors that have given interviews beg him to come back, which leaves you with a depressing taste in your mouth at the end of the film as you realise he's gone and his genius has gone with him.

Notably absent was a contribution from Matthew Broderick, Molly Ringwald and Macaulay Culkin, which disappointed me considering I cried like a baby at their Oscars tribute.

I give this film a 6/20 for effort, because despite its shortcomings, it's clearly a labour of love and who can blame them for that?

Oh, and I still think Judd Nelson is a self righteous, conceited showpony.

The young girl is the best of the group. The dude on the crutches adds no value to what they are trying to accomplish and they should have left him behind.