1 week Ago By Parul Sharma
The Breakfast Club was the teen comedy that defined a generation and now, 40 years after its release, it has been hailed as one of the best movies of all time, Written, produced, and directed by John Hughes, The Breakfast Club has an impressive 87 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and the 1985 coming-of-age cult classic is now streaming on Netflix. The movie focuses on high school students and the ever-present pressures they are faced with. In 2016, The Breakfast Club was added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, recognized for its "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
" The film tells the story of five teenagers from Shermer High School, Illinois, who belong to distinct and vastly varying high school cliques and are compelled to spend a Saturday in detention under the watchful eye of their authoritarian vice principal. The socially awkward introvert Brian Johnson, shy loner Allison Reynolds, stereotypical jock Andrew Clark, popular girl Claire Standish, and the defiant troublemaker John Bender. Forced to gather in the school library under the keen supervision of their vice principal, Richard Vernon, the highschoolers are tasked with writing a thousand-word essay about "who you think you are”.
After mocking the task, the kids eventually open up to each other, and we’re presented with a wonderfully poignant film that resonates even today, in 2025. Starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy, praise for movie has run high in the years since its release, with one critic saying: “It's almost worth sitting through a hundred of those exploitative, lame-brained teen farces in order to get to the warm and authentic intimacy of The Breakfast Club. It's a grand payoff.
” Another critical review of the John Hughes film calls it “significant” and added: “The Breakfast Club is such a significant film, the fact that it's also a very good one is almost incidental. This movie is so "now" it's the future.” The film’s cast and overall performances tend to garner astute praise, with one critic saying: “What makes The Breakfast Club an involving, occasionally even brilliant film, is the tight ensemble acting of a first-rate cast.
This is an actor's movie that is unencumbered by much action or even much change of scenery.” Being a 1980s film, The Breakfast Club came with all the “baggage” of that era, with one review smartly pinpointing that out: “An iconic movie of the '80s, with all the unappealing baggage that suggests.” The Breakfast Club has remained relevant through the decades, and audiences over the years have loved the film, with one review reading: “40 years on and this movie has not lost any of its appeal.
I love it. My children, who are now in high school, love it. Amazing actors.
Amazing script. Amazing music.” Director John Hughes incites praise, as one viewer said: “Iconic, well-acted, and timeless.
John Hughes remains the king of "coming-of-age" stories and for presenting realistic adolescents.” However not everyone found it engaging, with one audience reviewer added: “Finally watched this movie after seeing everyone rave about it all my life and I think it's incredibly overrated. It feels like it's a movie about nothing, it has no substance.
Beyond boring.” Another harsh critical review of the film reads: “Taking place almost entirely in one room, "The Breakfast Club" is the kind of movie – and the kind of play – that's hardly seen anymore. And good riddance.
” Some reviewers were also left unimpressed with the teenager-mongering: “When the causes of the Decline of Western Civilization are finally writ, Hollywood will surely have to answer why it turned one of man's most significant art forms over to the self-gratification of high-schoolers.” The Breakfast Club remains an all-time classic for a reason though. Or as one satisfied viewer put it simply: “A great wholesome thought provoking film.
It's so simple yet so impactful.” The Breakfast Club is available to stream on Netflix..
