Film Reviews
Dazed and Confused
L-I-V-I-N
By Jesse Barshop
Dazed and Confused. Written and directed by Richard Linklater. Dazed and Confused starts with a group of seniors in the year 1976. Randy ‘Pink’, Don, Jodi, Michelle, Slater, Benny, Melvin, Kevin, and Fred. It’s the last day of school and we are introduced to a tradition for the senior boy to get cricket paddles and spank the freshman boys with it. They design them and all too. Fred, Benny, and Melvin chase down a group of freshman boys, Hirschfelder, Pentico, Tommy, and Mitch. The seniors are chasing them in a truck and the freshman boys in a car. The senior girls also have a tradition where they gather as many freshman girls as they can and lay them down, put pacifiers in their mouths, and pour eggs, mustard, ketchup, flour, bread crumbs, and any sort of sticky substance you can think of. Then they make them do embarrassing things to other random people in the school.
When night falls, the seniors throw a huge party and two freshmen get invited, Mitch and Sabrina. When Pink picks up Mitch, we get introduced to Wooderson, a bit of an older guy who hangs out with the seniors. They go to a small bar and just hang out for a bit. We then see Sabrina with a couple of senior girls driving around. Pink, Mitch, Don, and Kevin take garbage cans and throw them at people's mailboxes for a while then go on a beer run. They get some beer and then a man comes out of nowhere and puts a gun to their faces and accuses them of destroying his mailbox. Which they did. They speed off and laugh about it, which I think is weird because the guy was shooting at them as they sped off. As the night goes on, they just party and have a good time. They reminisce about their high school years but are mostly happy.
This movie is just overall a nice movie to put on when there is nothing better to do. A nice feel-good movie to put on in the background while you’re doing something. It’s rated a 7.6/10 on IMDb but I think it should be a 9.2/10. I enjoyed it because there was no point in the movie, it was just people having fun. I think it deserves a lot more attention from people even though it’s a very popular movie, it feels like nobody has watched it. I think this should be a movie everyone has seen at least once in their life. But it’s just overall a great movie to put on in any situation or place.
Classic Movie or Overrated?
By Maddisyn DaSilva
Breakfast Club is a beloved classic movie that has been referenced and alluded to in various types of media like Family Guy, Victorious, and many others. Breakfast Club was released in 1985, thirty-nine years ago, and was directed by John Hudges. Hudges is best known for writing many famous films like the original Home Alone and directing Sixteen Candles. However, is Breakfast Club really good or just nostalgia? Breakfast Club follows a nerd, jock, princess, basket case, and criminal who all share an eight hour Saturday detention. They’re all told they all have to write an essay explaining who they are. The movie discusses what it’s like to be a teenager, socially and emotionally, alongside self-discovery and change.
I watched Breakfast Club from the recommendation of Mr. Nissen, one of the 10th grade English teachers, after I asked him what one of his favorite movies was. I’ve always wanted to watch Breakfast Club, as it’s also one of my mom’s favorite movies, so I finally decided to watch it. Personally, I really liked Breakfast Club and it has also become one of my favorite movies. Albeit, the movie has a few annoying eighties-movie troupes, but I still enjoyed it. The movie had a really good setup for the development of the characters. As they all got closer, they discovered things about each other and which made their developments from the beginning to the end very memorable. The way it was filmed, too, made the movie enjoyable to watch as it had many creative scenes like when they were in the hallways and near the end of the movie. To conclude, I enjoyed Breakfast Club and recommend it to those who like coming of age movies which talk about the struggles of being a teenager.