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Nov 17, 2025 Web Exclusive By Mollie Hawkins Photography by The Criterion Collection

Do our hearts truly die when we grow up? This is a core question of John Hughes’ iconic film, The Breakfast Club. The plot is simple: Five strangers are stuck together in their high school library for Saturday detention. But to boil down this film in simple terms is to be no better than Principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), who views the teens as nothing more than “a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, a princess and a criminal.”

It’s 1985, and our heroes are the perfect symbols of their teen angst: Claire (Molly Ringwald as the princess), Andy (Emilio Estevez as the wrestling star), Bender (Judd Nelson as the bad boy), Brian (Anthony Michael Hall as the nerd who failed shop), and Allison (Ally Sheedy as the weird girl). teens who would never be caught dead with each other during a bustling school day. Yet here they are, arguing amongst themselves until they each find a common enemy in the form of the principal and their respective parents—the adults who don’t see them for who they are.

In fact, a major throughline (if not the throughline) of this film is the absurdity of trying to explain who you think you are to people who’ve already put you in a category. And to do so in 1,000 words, no less, on one sheet of paper! No, our heroes would much rather work it out amongst themselves with the help of a little mischief, a few awkward confessions and a righteous soundtrack.

John Hughes practically defined what it meant to be a teenager in the ‘80s, with Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, to name a few. Whether he intended to or not, Hughes also helped define what it means to be a teenager for generations that would outlive him. As any of the one-liners spat by Bender (“Do you think I’d speak for you? I don’t even know your language.”) could very well apply to any teen today. Of course, it is worth noting that some of the scenes and insults from this era of comedy did not age well. Still, the film’s emotional core endures.

Minor cringe aside, this 4K digital restoration from Criterion is phenomenal, and the uncompressed ​​monaural soundtrack really shines during the dance scene (you know exactly what I’m talking about) and the final iconic Bender fist-pump (you also know the one). Included with this release is a goldmine of features, from cast interviews and commentary to a video essay featuring director John Hughes’s production notes, read by Judd Nelson, among others. Criterion was meticulous in curating the features and visuals on this one.

Being misunderstood is a tale as old as time, and The Breakfast Club is one of those movies that still manages to resonate as time marches forward, if only to remind us that we are all capable of being weird, popular, sporty, smart and a troublemaker. In other words: human.

(www.criterion.com/films/29272-the-breakfast-club)