Welcome back to Classic or Canceled, a series where we review 80s movies and see if they hold up in today’s world. 

Today we will be reviewing another film written by John Hughes, Pretty in Pink. This is a pretty popular movie, though I don’t hear about it a lot. Pretty in Pink has drama, love, and heartbreak, which are super classic factors in almost all teen romance movies.

Pretty in Pink was a super fun film, and I absolutely loved the fashion in it; let’s see if this movie holds up through the lens of a modern teenager.

Overview:

The plot of Pretty in Pink is pretty basic and predictable. The main character Andie lives on the poorer side of town with her friends Duckie and Jena. Their school is divided between the rich and the poor.

Andie usually gets bullied by rich people at her school, and authority does nothing about it. A rich boy named Blane catches her attention while at work, and they fall in love. Most people were opposed to this except for her boss Iona, and her dad.

They try to work through it while being absolutely ridiculed by everyone. They both realize that they should just be themselves and not care about what other people think. 

I thought that this film was cute but also cheesy. The storyline was pretty simple, and so were a few of the lines. It was like any other teenage romance story, which isn’t a bad thing, and it just didn’t have much that stood out to me.

My Concerns:   

I noticed a few weird lines from Duckie towards the beginning of the

 movie. Duckie walks up to a couple of unsuspecting girls and says, “Ladies, ladies, listen, I may be able to work out a deal where either one or both of you could be pregnant by the holidays. What do you say?” One of the girls rightfully slaps him. Then after that, things go back to normal

mal. This was very obviously creepy, and I don’t know the point of this part. Duckie doesn’t act like that in any other scene. This was so random and unnecessary. 

Another person whose actions were very similar to Duckie’s was Blane’s friend, Steff. He was pretty creepy towards Andie and even tried asking her out. When she rejected him, he started being super nasty towards her. Even when Andie and Blane began to date, he made rude and unwanted intimate comments towards her. I feel like this situation had a realistic side to it when someone doesn’t handle rejection well. This happens way too often among teens and young adults, especially when meeting someone online. There weren’t very many memorable scenes; that’s another downside to this movie. 

Moving on to something positive, one thing that I liked about the movie was the fashion, specifically

Andie’s clothes. Her style was super unique, and it fit her really well; it consisted of floral pieces, pastel dresses or skirts, and sweaters and blazers. Her style was a mix between 70s and 80s fashion (mostly 70s). It’s not anything that I would wear, but I could definitely see someone wearing similar clothing in today’s modern world.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this movie wasn’t awful; it was cute, simple, and had a little bit of humor involved. I’m not sure if I would watch it again, but I definitely recommend it to someone who wants to watch a short cheesy teen romance film. I would rate this movie a 7/10! Come back next time for a review of the movie Little Shop of Horrors!