R.I.P., John Hughes
Just happened across the news that John Hughes has died of a heart attack at age 59.
I never saw most of the later movies he wrote, or even most of the later movies he directed.
But I liked most of the ones I did see, as a teenager, despite my initial scorn of the mainstreamness of teenage sex comedies. I vaguely recall that The Breakfast Club was the first movie that both my brother and I liked, though I may be misremembering.
That and Ferris Bueller are, of course, the ones everyone loved, and I liked them both well enough. But the one that I've always had a soft spot for was Some Kind of Wonderful. IIrc, it didn't hold up well to adult viewing, but (again iIrc) I liked it quite a lot when I first saw it. And the leads sure were attractive.
And I think in addition to making popular movies, Hughes was also influential. I have a theory, though I have no evidence at all of this, that some of the people who made movies like Ten Things I Hate About You grew up watching Hughes movies. (My theory runs aground a bit on the fact that the director of that movie and the director/writer of Clueless were both born in 1954. But one of the writers of Ten Things was born in 1970, anyway.)
Anyway. I'm sorry to see him go.