AfterElton Briefs: Congratulations Mrs. Evans, "The Big Gay Sketch Show" takes on Paula Abdul, and more!

He was a brilliant guy and he made uncool kids cool.  FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF and THE BREAKFAST CLUB, will forever stand the test of time as one of the greatest teen movies EVER made along side the iconic REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, BLACKBOARD JUNGLE and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. I don't know why he wasn't as prolific in the last few years but his legacy is so important.

That's all I am saying... 

INSIDEGUY

Stephen Gately has aged really well. For a second I thought that was Liev Schreiber!

Btw, who is that hot guy in briefs?

...in more ways than you'd think, and not all of them good.

The man was a brilliant comedy writer, no argument.  Some of the biggest laughs and most heartwarming moments of the 1980's were courtesy of John Hughes via "Vacation" "Sixteen Candles" "The Breakfast Club" "Weird Science" "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" "Pretty In Pink" "Uncle Buck" "Planes, Tranes and Automobiles" and "Home Alone," among others.  He's endlessly quotable, had a real gift with actors, and a distinctive comedic style.  His best stuff will stand the test of time.  (And for someone who graduated from high school in 1985--the same spring "The Breakfast Club" was released--let me tell you, that felt like one of most brutally honest dissections of high school cliques I'd ever seen.)

However, this being AfterElton, I want to take Hughes to task: he was definitely a "prisoner of the 80's," meaning homphobia was all too familiar a crutch for him.  "Sixteen Candles"--which, due to its PG rating, is often shown at summer family movie fests--has Molly Ringwald dismissing Anthony Michael Hall's Geek as "a total fag."  "The Breakfast Club" claimed compassion for outsiders, but the locker at the beginning has a scrawl on it threatening anyone who opens it "YOU DIE, FAG."  "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" funniest scene is John Candy and Steve Martin sharing a bed and a morning snuggle ("Those aren't pillows!"), followed by a homophobic freak-out.  And though Hughes created characters that one could read as gay on the surface (Brian in "The Breakfast Club," Duckie in "Pretty in Pink," Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Watts in "Some Kind of Wonderful"), he never had the cajones to follow through, and instead made sure they all wound up with an opposite-sex partner (or at least expressed an interest in such).  And despite his adoration for his muse Molly Ringwald, Hughes really wasn't much of a writer for women (Ally Sheedy's Alison notwithstanding)--way too many of them were understanding wives/girlfriends/moms, or jokes (Kelly Lebrock's poise and wit helped redeem her 2-dimensionality in "Weird Science").  Really, did Mia Sara's Sloane in "Ferris Bueller" have any sort of inner life whatsoever?  Did anyone know?

Hughes' retirement/disappearance was a little odd--maybe he spent the last 15+ years just counting all his money.  However, when you consider the ways that, for example, Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") grew and developed, even with high school movies ("Say Anything" "Clueless"), Hughes now seems permanantly frozen in time, like the perpetually adolescent Ferris Bueller. (Michael Lehman of "Heathers" went on to "Ed Wood" and "The Truth About Cats and Dogs," and Chris Columbus of "Adventures in Babysitting" went on to do "Harry Potter" and "Rent.")

I was a John Hughes kid, absolutely.  Now, I'm more interested in kids like those in "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"--which owes Hughes a definite debt, but also transcended him, or the kids from "The Geography Club" or "Skins."  I've left the school library, jumped off the dining room table, I don't need another day off, and am fine being Home Alone.  Even Molly Ringwald is now on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," which just added a gay character.  The world has, for good or ill, left John Hughes' white, suburban, homo-invisible world behind.