They just had a moment of closeness that they both needed very badly. Claire didn’t induct her into the preps or the richies. What mattered was the intimacy and the kindness. In all likelihood, she’ll be back at school Monday in her same clothes and wearing her Siouxsie-inspired make-up. The very last shot we have of her, she is stealing a patch off Andrew’s jacket. It takes trust, closeness, and communication, things Allison hasn’t gotten at home for a very long time. There is something very intimate about having someone do your makeup. Meanwhile we have Allison, who is likely the most touch-starved person in the group. She needs her actions to be her own, not gambits in an acidic social game. When Allison asks why Claire is being so nice to her, Claire says, “Because you’re letting me.” All Claire wants is affection without price or ulterior motive. It’s a chance for Claire to do something for another person without it ever being used to hurt anyone. When Claire gets the idea to change Allison’s makeup, it’s not about erasing Allison. She eats a gross little kid’s lunch because Allison’s emotional growth is completely stunted. Her lunch is Pixie Stix, Cap’n Crunch, and mayo on bread, which is probably something she has been making for herself since she was tall enough to reach the ingredients. When her parents drop her off, they don’t even say goodbye. Her parents are almost completely absent from her life and she has no friend structure.

Her friends are all social climbers who rank everyone, further adding to her insecurity.Īllison has the opposite problem. Her mom and dad dote on her as moves in a bitter chess game, leaving Claire unsure if anyone really cares about her.

In Claire’s case, parental affection has been weaponized. Everyone in detention that day is profoundly damaged, desperately hurting, and passionately keen to escape their parents. Poverty, hyper-consumerism, increased isolation, and toxic masculinity all turn the leads into different archetypes as they try and fit in the machine without being ground to death by the gears. The Breakfast Club is essentially the story of 1980s cultural trauma and how five different young people are shaped by it. Shitty imitators have retroactively colored the original. We’re all just poisoned by all the scenes it has since spawned that missed the point entirely. I’ve written before about how much I desperately hate shows where the goth chick goes normie and everyone applauds.Īfter a rewatch with my sensitive and intelligent offspring, I don’t think that’s what actually happens here. It smacks of bullshit Ugly Duckling nonsense where a “weird” girl abandons herself for pretty princesness. Jock Andrew (Emilio Estevez) is blown away, and the two start dating right before the credits roll.Ī lot of people hate this scene. Allison emerges without her thick eyeliner, her hair out of her face, and dressed in a simple white camisole. Near the end of the film, preppy rich girl Claire (Molly Ringwald) takes goth-punk basket case Allison (Ally Sheedy) over to a corner of the library and redoes her make-up. One scene caused a long after-movie discussion: the makeover scene. I was a little surprised how much they enjoyed it. The kid immediately recognized how much of their Gen X parents’ personalities came from this film. My kid turned 14 last week, so the Wife With One F and I thought it was a good time to show them the 1985 classic teen drama The Breakfast Club.

Stephen bishop actor parents