Sixteen Candles

1984·93 minPG·English

Rate

7.06181%3.0/5

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With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, angst-ridden Samantha faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread. Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake, but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior. Meanwhile, she must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted, who is unfortunately the only boy in school who seems to take an interest in her.

What critics thought

Sixteen Candles landed mostly well with critics at the time, who found Hughes's ear for adolescent embarrassment and Molly Ringwald's performance more sincere than the typical teen raunch comedy — though the film's ethnic humor and a meandering second half drew real objections. Retrospectively it has settled into the canon of Hughes's best work, even if the original critical reception was noticeably more divided than that reputation suggests.

“the best teenage comedy since last year's Risky Business”
Gene Siskel·Chicago Tribune
“It doesn't amount to much, and it's certainly not to be confused with a work of art or a work of any depth, but the young writer-director John Hughes has a knack for making you like the high-school age characters better each time you hear them talk.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
“Sixteen Candles' mixture of the sympathetic and the synthetic, the raucous and the racist, doesn't. At least not for me ... it flails about, substituting chaos and raunchy language for any semblance of wit.”
Sheila Benson·Los Angeles Times
“a cuter and better-natured teen comedy than most, with the kinds of occasional lapses in taste that probably can't hurt it in the circles for which it is intended”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“Hughes isn't vigilant or deft enough to prevent the dramatic focus of attention from shifting at about the halfway point; he can't quite finesse the letdown that sets in when the engaging teen-age heroine, Samantha, delightfully embodied by Molly Ringwald, is allowed to become almost a subsidiary character in the second half of the story.”
Gary Arnold·The Washington Post

Genres

Comedy, Romance

Cast & Crew

John HughesDirector

Molly RingwaldSamantha Baker

Michael SchoefflingJake Ryan

Haviland MorrisCaroline Mulford

Gedde WatanabeLong Duk Dong

Anthony Michael HallGeek (Ted)

Justin HenryMike Baker

Paul DooleyJim Baker

Carlin GlynnBrenda Baker

Blanche BakerGinny Baker

Edward AndrewsHoward Baker

Billie BirdDorothy Baker

Carole CookGrandma Helen

Ira NewbornComposer

Bobby ByrneCinematography

Sixteen Candles

1984·93 min·PG·English

Rate

7.06181%3.0/5

What critics thought

“the best teenage comedy since last year's Risky Business”
Gene Siskel·Chicago Tribune
“It doesn't amount to much, and it's certainly not to be confused with a work of art or a work of any depth, but the young writer-director John Hughes has a knack for making you like the high-school age characters better each time you hear them talk.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
“Sixteen Candles' mixture of the sympathetic and the synthetic, the raucous and the racist, doesn't. At least not for me ... it flails about, substituting chaos and raunchy language for any semblance of wit.”
Sheila Benson·Los Angeles Times
“a cuter and better-natured teen comedy than most, with the kinds of occasional lapses in taste that probably can't hurt it in the circles for which it is intended”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“Hughes isn't vigilant or deft enough to prevent the dramatic focus of attention from shifting at about the halfway point; he can't quite finesse the letdown that sets in when the engaging teen-age heroine, Samantha, delightfully embodied by Molly Ringwald, is allowed to become almost a subsidiary character in the second half of the story.”
Gary Arnold·The Washington Post