Sixteen Candles (1984)

A high school sophomore (Molly Ringwald) is stunned when her family forgets her 16th birthday. But they are involved in the wedding plans for her older sister (Blanche Baker). It doesn't help that the boy (Michael Schoeffling) she has a crush on doesn't know she exists ..... or does he? Written and directed by John Hughes, this was one of the seminal teen comedies of the 1980s. It's still a good movie with an eye for the particular teen angst that each generation seems to go through. But time hasn't been kind to the film. Notably in two aspects: the racial stereotyping of an Asian exchange student (Gedde Watanabe) whose ethnicity is played for cheap laughs and while perhaps not quite date rape, the taking advantage sexually of an inebriated girl (Haviland Morris). Those scenes leave a bad taste in the mouth of 2020 audiences (at least the enlightened ones). That aside, the film is a showcase for Molly Ringwald who quickly became America's sweetheart in the 1980s. She's refreshingly natural, not actress-y and doesn't over do the typical teenage girl bit. But the movie is almost stolen by Anthony Michael Hall whose "geek" crosses over to appealing eventually. With Paul Dooley, Carlin Glynn, Edward Andrews, Carole Cook, Justin Henry, John Kapelos, Max Showalter, Billie Bird and two youngsters in small roles who would go to major careers, John Cusack and Joan Cusack.