by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

Imagine a situation when you have to go to school on a weekend to basically waste your morning there. Imagine that somebody wanted to make a movie about it. It would be the worst kind of movie idea imaginable. How could you even make that interesting? Well John Hughes did. The movie should not work under any circumstance, but it does. And it does so well, it's a bloody cinematic miracle.

The story is what it is, 5 teenagers were punished by the school for misbehaving and are now required to come for one day on Saturday to write an essay about themselves. They are so bored, that they do shit to keep themselves not bored. Yes, it sounds boring, but somehow it is not. I have no idea how to explain it. I have to look at the movie under a microscope to see how the hell it pulls off this magic. There is enough stuff that they do out of boredom. And they have enough unique personalities that clash with each other in meaningful ways. And the ending is so painful and hopeful in the same time that, fuck it, I cry every god damn time. And still. The movie ends and I feel like it doesn't have any reason to be that good. It just makes no sense.

There are only a handful of actors in the movie. But all of the teenagers are very good. Those are played wonderfully by Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall. There is also the school's principal played by Paul Gleason which looks suspiciously like Ben Mendelsohn. And there's the janitor with the most wholesome serial-killer smile ever, played by John Kapelos. All these actors know what they are doing very well. And the acting in the movie is pretty much, I think, what holds it together. Because there isn't much else to see, to be honest.

Directing-wise the movie had even less money than Call Me By Your Name, so the camera moves even less. There is one nice camera move toward the end. And some nice steady-cam work in the scene where they are running around the school. I know it sounds very terrible. But oh my god!!! Somehow it works. John Hughes being both writer and director is a magician and I really want to know the tricks up his sleeve.

The movie has a score but it mostly shines in the songs that they chose for soundtrack. It has a few scenes that look like music videos. The teens got bored and started listening to music. I know, it sounds like it shouldn't work. But I'm telling you, John Hughes is a magician. Like he had to sacrifice probably a dozen goats to Satan to make this movie work. But whatever he did, paid off. Hey! Just give it a watch, would you! You will be as baffled as I am.

The are only 2 issues I have with this movie: Allison had to drop her goth look to get with Andrew. I liked her looking goth a lot more. And Brian didn't get a girl. Poor Brian.

Happy Hacking!!!


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