7 — Sixteen Candles (1984)

From Hughes’ last film to his first. It’s not just that Sixteen Candles hasn’t aged well, though that is true. (The less we say about Long Duk Dong, the better.) You may be saying, “But Duckie is such a fun character! And Harry Dean Stanton is so sweet as Molly Ringwald’s dad!” Ah, you’re thinking of Pretty in Pink, one of the John Hughes movies he wrote but didn’t direct — which also stars Ringwald as a troubled teenager. That one is directed by Howard Deutch.

One criticism you will hear levied against John Hughes movies, and it is sometimes a fair one, is that he took a lot of license with what real teenagers were like. Characters in John Hughes movies rarely acted like people in real life. For some comedies, including some Hughes comedies, that works better.

When you aim for slice-of-life filmmaking, though, that can bump a bit more. Sixteen Candles, at its lowest points, feels like it was written and directed by an alien. It may have launched his career, but in hindsight is fairly lacking.