cult film freak: JUDD NELSON RULES THE BRAT PACK CLASSIC 'THE BREAKFAST CLUB'

Written by James M. Tate / 8/30/2026 / No comments / ally sheedy , brat pack , comedy , eighties , emilio estevez , john hughes , judd nelson , molly ringwald , paul gleason

JUDD NELSON RULES THE BRAT PACK CLASSIC 'THE BREAKFAST CLUB'

8/30/2026 | No comment

Year: 1985 Rating: ****1/2

In 1985, a year after swaggering onto the big screen in the nearly forgotten con-man caper MAKING THE GRADE, Judd Nelson played the biggest post-collegiate geek ever for Kevin Costner's indie breakthrough FANDANGO... before ironically poking fun at high school geek Anthony Michael Hall in John Hughes's THE BREAKFAST CLUB...

As Nelson's criminal character John Bender isn't anything like the typical BLACKBOARD JUNGLE teen rebel... his cause is basically being a demonic Phil Donahue within an 8-hour Saturday detention, also goading pretty popular Molly Ringwald, handsome jock Emilio Estevez, and neurotic pre-goth Ally Sheedy into eventually seeking their true feelings about topics ranging from homelife parentals to high school popularity...

Judd Nelson in THE BREAKFAST CLUB

There has never been such a tremendous scene-stealer... but if writer/director John Hughes created Bender for that very reason, is he really stealing a movie that was his very own to begin with?

Which doesn't mean the other students are either filler or followers... Emilio Estevez has the most difficult and thankless role: a stubborn kind of buzz-kill/party-pooper while, for the audience, his first-act confrontations with the antagonistic heavy metler are like an uptight security guard heckling everyone's favorite standup comedian...

Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez & Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club

Yet Judd Nelson's performance sporadically borders on emotionally psychotic: that's when he's not creepily aggressive towards campus princess Molly Ringwald's virginal red-headed rich kid...

Which Hughes is deliberately responsible for, piling on the usual overdose of class envy that, let's face it, means close to nothing in high school: where popularity is based on looks, confidence and athleticism instead of whatever their parents have (or don't have) in the bank...

Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez & Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club

Nothing new for the iconic filmmaker, who always mixed cerebral melodrama with antic-filled hijinx... as the young actors seem more part of a creatively filmed stage play (with strategically-placed bursts of hallway-traipsing action) than the usual ensemble high school flick, letting any flaw be ultimately forgiven...

Like the overused trope of smoking pot to make the characters bond, during a somewhat melodramatic third-act involving overlong monologue/revelations... except from the movie's dark-horse, often saving these navel-gazing characters from themselves...

Ally Sheedy in THE BREAKFAST CLUB

The upbeat girlfriend in WAR GAMES, now resembling a young bag-lady, Ally Sheedy's kleptomaniac loner is the most visually dramatized student... but she's also the least complicated — seeing through phony bulwarks more effectively than the push-em-to-their-limits John Bender...

And not since ANIMAL HOUSE has there been such an intentionally overboard faculty-ruling villain: as Paul Gleason makes for a sublimely strict and unapologetic vice principal... whose particular scenes clashing with Judd Nelson are genuinely intense, edgy, and uncomfortable...

Anthony Michael Hall in THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Meanwhile, Anthony Michael Hall's again cast as the token geek... more scholarly this time, and mellowed since his zany turn taunting Molly Ringwald in SIXTEEN CANDLES, he's the group's patient barometer, who, along with John Kapelos's enlightened janitor, is a composite hybrid of John Hughes himself...

Flanked by Hughes's CANDLES and Joel Shumaker's ST. ELMO'S FIRE, it's the quintessential brat pack vehicle, putting the audience right in that central located school library — that feels like an entirely separated universe all its own.