Pretty in Pink

Oddballs unite as Harry Dean Stanton plays somewhat against type alongside Molly Ringwald in a witty coming-of-age story that has become one of the defining films of the 1980s. Producer, writer and director John Hughes’ bittersweet tale, with a soundtrack that includes tracks by The Psychedelic Furs, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, INXS, Suzanne Vega and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, made stars of Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald, and saw its director corner the American market in love-struck teens and the ennui of peer pressure. Stanton, in possibly his most mainstream role, is effective and remarkably clean-cut (for once) as the father of Ringwald’s teen in love.