Ellen Leventry: August 2009 Archives

So FOX has ordered up a Nadya Suleman special to be titled "Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage." Or as I like to think of it, "When Fertility Treatments Attack."

As the Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed reports, the two-hour documentary, set to air Wednesday, August 19, will allow the audience to "witness the emotional struggles, physical complications and financial burdens of this single mother of 14 ... including the private moments and reactions of Suleman's family, as well as Suleman's own feelings, doubts and fears."

I'm all for guilty-pleasure viewing, but even if I wasn't already sick of this woman and her cephalopod-like grip on pop culture, I wouldn't watch. It's not the shadow of a California Labor Commission investigation into the footage originally shot by Radar Online (which FOX says is now resolved), but rather the lack of innocence.

It goes without saying, I believe, that every thirty-something American would call "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" one of their favorite John Hughes movies. And I've never really found the post-1990, post-"Home Alone" Hughes oeuvre platable, so an entire decade of productivity is automatically excluded from a list of favorites. With those stipulations in mind, I offer my fave John Hughes films (in no particular order) and the one film I never quite took a liking to.

Sixteen Candles (1984): I spent one entire summer watching and rewatching this Molly Ringwald vehicle. Anthony Michael Hall's hilarious geek and the hunky Michael Schoeffling were perfect bookends to Ringwald's Samantha Baker, a birthday gal whose special day had been forgotten by her family and friends for her sister's wedding. Populated by wonderfully eccentric characters, the groping grandmother, the wacky foreign exchange student, the out-of-it-sister, the story was also entirely relatable: Who hasn't felt invisible at some point in their life? Memorable line: "Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?"

The Breakfast Club (1985): This Brat Pack-rich movie about five teens forced to spend Saturday detention together, getting to know each other and themselves, is the template upon which all teen movies would be built. Would MTV's "The Real World" or "The Hills" exist without the clearly defined archetypes--the jock, the burnout, the nerd, the princess--Hughes defined? Most memorable quotes: "Could you describe the ruckus, sir?" and "Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"

The news of director John Hughes' ("The Breakfast Club," "Some Kind of Wonderful," Pretty in Pink") passing this morning is made even more poignant by the fact that the latest season of "Skins," a gritty BBC teen drama full of Hughes' influence, premieres tonight on BBC America.

Powered by sex, drugs, and ennui, "Skins" follows the exploits of a group of teen friends in Bristol, England, as they navigate the twists-and-turns of adolescence. While seasons one and two focused on popular Tony Stonem ("About a Boy's" Nicholas Hoult) and his clique, season three is all about his beautiful and manipulative sister Effy and her circle of friends.