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American Teen…The new Breakfast Club?
beingzoe almost 2 years ago | 2 responses    

After Ily posted her ‘reservations’ about someone making a ‘Breakfast Club’ for this generation, like Ily, I too was suspicious. After all, the original John Hughes film, like all of his work, were moving and inspiring tales of teen life and coming of age in the 80’s & 90’s (tough as it might have been). Seriously though, other than the already hardened and cynical, who from that era was not inspired or affected by Hughes’ work?

So to say someone is, for all intents and purposes doing a remake, or at least an inspired version of the same could rub true fans the wrong way. But as Ily points out, if it were to give a new generation hope for the future, what could be wrong with it?

Absolutely nothing. The new movie in question is in fact a documentary, entitled American Teen. In fact, this real life documentary did have some inspiration from the Hughes’ film Breakfast Club in the mind of American Teen filmmaker, Nanette Burstein.

From an article at FilmSchoolRejects by Neil Miller :

“Paramount Vantage sent over this brand new poster for American Teen…and it certainly caught me off guard…[referring to the marketing-not the film] take the subjects, who are a diverse group of high school students from Indiana, and you put them in context with a John Hughes movie…But for me, someone who loves the movie for what it is (having seen it twice), I can say that while this movie is not The Breakfast Club, I don’t blame Paramount Vantage for using this type of marketing.”

“’Breakfast Club is one of the few teen fiction films that actually address all those teen storylines: popular girls ruling the school, the Romeo and Juliet love-story, the nerdy kid looking for acceptance,’ Burstein told The Hollywood Reporter. ‘I didn’t consciously think about that when I was shooting the movie but afterwards, I realized the similarities.’”

Peter Sciretta at slashfilm said:

“Since it’s premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, movie critics have been comparing this year’s best film (so far) American Teen to John Hughes’ 80’s teen classic The Breakfast Club…I’ve been more apt to compare it to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but the Breakfast Club comparison works just as well because of the social class system of the characters followed.”

So there you go Ily, put your mind at ease. This is no remake of The Breakfast Club and sounds like it might be great glance into the current generation of youth. And after you watch the trailer not only is this likely to be a good film, it is probably going to as funny and emotional as watching ‘the original’.

American Teen trailer from YouTube via worththepopcorn.

American Teen movie poster from FilmSchoolRejects and side-by-side graphic from slashfilm

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