I prefer Duckie....

It is a strange thing to watch old John Hughes movies as an adult. Now, even though movies like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles weren’t really part of my generation, I look back on my early viewing and I remember feeling exactly as I was meant to feel. Jake Ryan is dreamy. Who doesn’t love the super hot popular guy with a heart of gold who picks the plain girl out of a crowd. As a very plain girl, I was really pinning all my hopes on a Jake Ryan of my own.

Last night I was watching TBS and happened upon the movie Pretty in Pink. I’ve only ever seen this movie one other time, so I ended up watching the whole thing last night, for nostalgia’s sake. I realized something about half-way through the movie. Now that I am more secure in who I am and not desperate for a rich, popular boy to notice me… I’m not as invested in the story as I was before. I’m more interested in Duckie. That scene where he dances around the record store to Otis Redding is hilarious. There is something really magnetic about his tortured weirdness….

That rich Andrew guy doesn’t say a single interesting thing in the whole movie. I find it difficult to understand how someone so uninspired could have played the male lead in the movie. If James Spader hadn’t been such a prick, maybe he’d have been a better choice. He was a huge asshole in the movie, but that sleepy eyed, slightly perverse sexuality that he oozes ( or maybe I’m just obsessed with that movie Secretary) is very intriguing. I don’t know. I guess the older you get, the formulas just don’t seem to make as much sense any more.

Give me more Duckies….