The Breakfast Club

It's a typical Saturday morning in Shermer High School, with the vast majority of students indulging in a well-deserved weekend. However, five outsiders are not as fortunate. They are brought into school for Saturday detention, a consequence they will have to endure under the strict supervision of the power-hungry Principal Vernon. John Bender, the ultimate rebel, walks in under the shadows of the school's early morning gloom. As they enter the gymnasium, it becomes apparent that each of these individuals comes from a different corner of the high school's social hierarchy. There's Claire Standish, the beautiful, popular, and affluent "princess." Next to her stands Brian Johnson, the quintessential brainiac always toting his prized possession, a novel he's reading. Meanwhile, Allison Reynolds, a loner with an enigmatic vibe, glides quietly into the room with her characteristic distant nonchalance. Lastly, Andrew Clark, the high school jock with everything he could possibly want, follows suit, his pride still reeling from a private plane incident. Initially, the group exchanges little to no conversation and exudes an air of uneasy civility, each trying to stay at a comfortable distance from one another. Time begins to drag on gradually, with Principal Vernon keeping tight reins on their endeavors through a relentless tirade of rules, surveillance cameras, and occasional unwarranted blows to the school's canteen food serving standards. Andrew Clark, seeking to prove himself to anyone willing to listen, regales the group with tales of his impending football star status and family connections. During the course of his storytelling, we begin to understand the immense pressure he faces in contributing to his family's respected history. They spend an otherwise humdrum hour dealing with and complaining about the myriad problems the principal throws their way: picking up cigarette butts, getting up at 7 AM and carrying boxes from storage. However, the story begins to unfold when their initial disdain and curiosity slowly evolve into genuinely expressed feelings regarding their harsh social situations and their high school lives. The film gives them the opportunity to tell their stories, prompting each individual to let their guard down as they open up in a heartfelt confessional – and the true depths and complexities of each character slowly get revealed. Andrew Clark explains that a strained relationship between him and his parents exacerbates his athletic persona; Allison avows her cruel cruelty lies in just one painful period, during which the isolation rendered her incredibly merciless thereby leaving one teacher incredibly scarred and, for an instance, quite crippled and unable to teach the likes of her; Brian starts recalling an insufferable and cruel infatuation filled with panic, one incident that threatened what little respect the outcast Allison harbored for him; and Claire explains her dependency on wealth along with a father who seeks very little for her and cares very little too. John breaks down when reminiscing about the neglect and unfulfilling adoption experience from his unaccommodating parents. Once their past haunts are aired out, emotions surge within the group and they all slowly become immersed in what at first might have appeared to be unrelated to them at-first-glance stories of those students, finally showing something they all had initially thought so different to them became all too relatable. Realization starts setting in - it is definitely not merely some affluent, famous or smart oddities; and sometimes much appears far grunding, far simple than all it appears, we get that each have deeper more vital reasons that bring their emotions to boiling point than initially predicted.