When we think of 80’s teen comedies, our minds always jump to “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink,” and “Sixteen Candles.” But there is one hidden gem that always seems to be left out of the conversation: “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Long before Patrick Dempsey was “McDreamy,” he was the “McNerdy” Ronald Miller. The premise of this story is quite clever – a nerd rescues a popular damsel in distress and asks her to repay him by pretending to date so that he can become popular. In hindsight, the plot seems like it should have been completely predictable but I found myself surprised and intrigued as it developed onscreen. Amanda Peterson steers the popular Cindy away from clichés and gives her a lot of depth. She absolutely stole the screen. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is completely materialistic and happy to fit into their stereotypes, making the personalities of Ron and Cindy even more interesting to watch. The film does have most of the aspects of a teen comedy that I find unnecessary – drugs, alcohol, adult themes, excessive profanity, Seth Green – but at least they are portrayed in an unglamorous way (including tween Seth Green). It goes to show that even 30 years ago, writers incorporated unnecessary crude content to draw in larger audiences. I wouldn’t call the film a masterpiece but it was extremely entertaining and had a nice moral (particularly the final cafeteria scene). It isn’t often that the title song of a film can be such a poignant and appropriate punctuation mark at the end of a story. “Can’t Buy Me Love” isn’t the greatest 80’s teen comedy but it is worth being thrown into the rotation.
[Pictured: Dempsey and Peterson are now one of my favorite onscreen teen couples]
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