Saturday, April 09, 2005

Pauline Kael

“But the only performance that has a comic kick to it is Ally Sheedy's. She's a flip-out, a girl who hides in her clothes and thinks she's being a loner and a mysterious recluse. Bundled up in her black shawls and layers of cloth, she's like a junior Madwoman of CHaillot; with her forehead hidden under her dark hair, and her chin held down, she's furtive yet bold. Her minx's face is a tiny triangle in the darkness. When she moves, she darts, and when you see her eyes they dart, too, and flash--they're the eyes of someone who's secretly grining [I saw pain]. Crazy sounds come out of her, and she does eccentric things--like drawing a picture of a winter scene and shaking her dandruff on it for snow. She's a marvellous comic sprite, a bag-lady Puck. And then John Hughes makes his soggiest mistake: the princess takes her in hand, scrubs all the back eye makeup off her, gets her out of her witches' wrappings, and brushes her hair back and puts a ribbon in it, and she comes forth looking broad-faced and dull. But she's supposed to be beautiful, and she captures the jock's heart.

…. [A]ll this encounter-session movie actually does is strip a group of high-school kids down to their most banal longings to be accepted and liked. [Banal?] Its real emblem is that dreary, retro ribbon.”

Pauline Kael
The New Yorker, April 8, 1985

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