Alex Moss EditorBelieve it or not John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club turned FORTY last year. And in all that time it remains the quintessential high school film. Because what Hughes did with The Breakfast Club has been endlessly tried, endlessly homage but never ever bested or equalled. It is a film that transcends time because more than any other it smartly, warmly and humorlessly captures the essence of what it is to be a teenager navigating high school, where the outsiders feel victimised but the popular kids feel the pressure cooker of maintaining their status at the top. .
Its brilliance, as is the case with most of Hughes’ films, is its ability to take expectations and skew them from being cinematic archetypes to reality touching nuances. So you have the jock (Emilio Estevez) but he hates the pressure of having to be the top-dog. You have the geek (Anthony Michael Hall) but he’s so obsessed with getting good grades he’s depressed. Then there’s the prom queen (Molly Ringwald) who is sick and tired of having to keep up the appearances her friends demand. The outsider (Ally Sheedy) has isolated herself so much she doesn’t know how to make friends. And then there’s the bad boy (Judd Nelson) who acts as the antagonist but is ultimately the most damaged and desperate to be seen.
These are roles that made the entire cast household names, at this period of the 1980s being cast as in a John Hughes film was the greatest accolade a young actor could hope for and no film of his was as well cast as The Breakfast Club. Without exception the cast all bring something unique to their performances. Mixing a sense of teenage arrogance with child-like naivety. Performances that draw you into the character, letting you believe they are one thing before Hughes and the actors peel back the layers to reveal what is hidden under the bravado.
Hughes isn’t interested in examining the stereotypes; he’s interested in dissecting the cruel politics and pressures of high school. These kids are all vulnerable, all suffering from insecurities and all masking them with identities assigned to them by negative influences like peer-pressure, teachers and parents. They all laugh, they all bleed and we bask in knowing that we weren’t the only ones who felt like this both then and even now.
It’s the kind of film that most of us over a certain age grew-up watching on grainy VHS tapes. So seeing it as part of the Criterion Collection in glorious 4K is a genuine delight. Watching it now it is striking how simple the premise is and yet such is Hughes’ genius that you are utterly absorbed into this single location character drama. It’s no wonder that after the success of the film Hughes was asked to adapt it as a play so as high schools could put it on. Because it is a film that taps so perfectly into helping people struggling with identity to remember that the only thing you have to be true to, is you.
An essential coming-of-age high-school drama that mixes moments of brilliant laughs with powerful pathos, John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club remains, and always will be, essential viewing.
The Breakfast Club is available from The Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from 9th March 2026.
