Tagged: Student
Christine: Arnie’s Red Jacket and Famous ’58 Fury
Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham in Christine (1983)
Vitals
Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham, high school senior
Rockbridge, California, Fall/Winter 1978
Film: Christine
Release Date: December 9, 1983
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Designer: Darryl Levine
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
No shitter ever came between me and Christine!
Christine drove into theaters 40 years ago today, directed by the great John Carpenter and adapted by Bill Phillips from Stephen King’s supernatural horror novel of the same name that had been published just months earlier. The titular Christine is a white-over-red 1958 Plymouth Fury, high-schooler Arnie Cunningham’s prized possession… and possibly also possessed by a homicidal demon. Continue reading
The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Charlie’s Suit
Logan Lerman as Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Vitals
Logan Lerman as Charlie Kelmeckis, anxious high school freshman
Pittsburgh, Christmas 1991 through Spring 1992
Film: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Release Date: September 21, 2012
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Costume Designer: David C. Robinson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Dear friend,
If you read my last post about Jonah Hill’s party gear in Superbad, you know I’ve been on a bit of a high school nostalgia kick lately. And I’m keeping that going with a look at the very significant suit gifted to our sensitive narrator in the book and movie adaptation of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Continue reading
Jonah Hill in Superbad
Jonah Hill as Seth in Superbad (2007)
Vitals
Jonah Hill as Seth, crude high school senior
Clark County, Spring 2006
Film: Superbad
Release Date: August 17, 2007
Director: Greg Mottola
Costume Designer: Debra McGuire
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Yesterday marked exactly 16 years since my high school graduation. Early June always awakens my nostalgia for the last days of school, when the excitement of summer ahead was made even more thrilling my senior year when I was just months away from entering college.
Superbad was released two months after I graduated during this significant summer, so it always held a significant place in my moviegoing heart for as much as I could—for better or worse—relate to its protagonists, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), during their final weeks of high school as lame-duck seniors.
The movie was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, loosely based on their own experiences as teens in Vancouver during the late ’90s, with added cinematic inspiration by way of American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. By the time Superbad actually made it to the production phase in the mid-2000s, Rogen was a familiar face due to roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but he had aged out of convincingly playing a high school student, providing the opportunity for Jonah Hill’s breakout performance as Seth, the brash teen inspired by Rogen himself. Continue reading
Catch Me If You Can: Frank’s Fair Isle-Style Christmas Sweater
Leonardo DiCaprio and Nathalie Baye in Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Vitals
Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr., suburban high-schooler
New Rochelle, New York, Christmas 1963
Film: Catch Me If You Can
Release Date: December 25, 2002
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
Background
Merry Christmas!
Based on the now mostly debunked claims of fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr., Catch Me If You Can was released 20 years ago today on Christmas 2002, an appropriate opening date for a movie that benchmarks its protagonist’s status by how he spends each yuletide.
When we first meet Frank in late 1963, he’s a relatively well-adjusted teen with plenty of charisma if perhaps a bit precociously streetwise for a 15-year-old in the suburbs of New Rochelle, no doubt a byproduct of his artful father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken), depicted passing on several lessons in minor larceny to his son. Before Frank Jr.’s first Pan Am uniform fitting or check forgery, we spend one last idyllic holiday with the Abagnale family in their New Rochelle home during Christmas 1963, as both Frank and his father take turns dancing with his Algerian-born mother Paula (Nathalie Baye), reminiscing about Frank Sr.’s courtship of the “blonde bombshell” Paula while he was serving in France during World War II. Continue reading
Risky Business: Tom Cruise’s Varsity Prep Style and Porsche
Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay in Risky Business (1983)
Vitals
Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson, ambitious high school student
Chicago, Fall 1983
Film: Risky Business
Release Date: August 5, 1983
Director: Paul Brickman
Costume Designer: Robert De Mora
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is Tom Cruise’s 60th birthday, and the charismatic superstar has proved his staying power with the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, currently the highest-grossing movie of 2022 and of Cruise’s prolific career. The original Top Gun had elevated Cruise to stardom, following his breakthrough performance in Paul Brickman’s sharp satire Risky Business.
Though perhaps remembered most—and unfairly dismissed—as a teen sex comedy, Risky Business critically explores the impact of capitalism and consumerism through the lens of our high-achieving high schooler, Joel Goodson, who’s spent these first years of his life knowing nothing other than a relentless drive to succeed. In addition to the professional pressure applied by his parents, Joel also feels both the internal and peer pressure to achieve in the sexual arena, which he satisfies after hiring an escort named Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) after his parents leave him home alone for several weeks.
Joel and Lana’s relationship swiftly evolves from professional to personal… and then a combination of both after his father’s Porsche takes a swim in Lake Michigan while under Joel’s unauthorized care. To bankroll the car’s astronomical repair costs before his parents’ return, Joel tests his own entrepreneurial savvy by joining forces with Lana and turning his family home into a brothel for one night to turn a profit from his rich and horny classmates.
To kick off the first semi-annual #CarWeek series of 2022, let’s take a look at Joel’s all-American varsity style (apropos Cruise’s birthday on the eve of Independence Day) while behind the wheel of that prized Porsche 928. Continue reading
Stranger Things: Steve Harrington’s Members Only Jacket
Joe Keery as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things (Episode 2.05: “Dig Dug”)
Vitals
Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, popular high school senior
Indiana, Fall 1984
Series: Stranger Things
Episodes:
– “Chapter Five: Dig Dug” (Episode 2.05, dir. Andrew Stanton)
– “Chapter Six: The Spy” (Episode 2.06, dir. Andrew Stanton)
– “Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer” (Episode 2.08, dir. The Duffer Brothers)
– “Chapter Nine: The Gate” (Episode 2.09, dir. The Duffer Brothers)
Streaming Date: October 27, 2017
Creator: The Duffer Brothers
Costume Designer: Kim Wilcox
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This Friday, Netflix welcomes viewers back to Stranger Things with the fourth and penultimate season of the streaming phenomenon that blends elements of horror and sci-fi through a nostalgic 1980s lens.
One of my favorite character arcs on Stranger Things has followed Steve Harrington from the prototypical bullying jock he was at the start of the series into an affable ally who eagerly jumps in to assist and protect our young heroes against the series’ otherworldly antagonists. Continue reading
Risky Business: Tom Cruise in Donegal Tweed
Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay in Risky Business (1983). Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Vitals
Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson, ambitious high school student-turned-pimp
Chicago, Fall 1983
Film: Risky Business
Release Date: August 5, 1983
Director: Paul Brickman
Costume Designer: Robert De Mora
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As we enter “Back to School” season, I want to look at one of the most famous cinematic intersections of style and scholastics, a dark coming-of-age comedy starring a young Tom Cruise as a high school student whose desire to compete in the modern materialistic marketplace leads to his engaging in some perilous pursuits… or Risky Business, if you will.
Rebel Without a Cause – Jim’s Fleck Jacket and 1949 Mercury
James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
Vitals
James Dean as Jim Stark, confused suburban high school student and loner
Los Angeles, Spring 1956
Film: Rebel Without a Cause
Release Date: October 27, 1955
Director: Nicholas Ray
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry
Background
Car Week concludes with a look at one of the most iconic drivers to ever speed across the silver screen: James Dean.
In Rebel Without a Cause, the second of Dean’s three credited films as an actor, Dean played the archetypical angsty teen Jim Stark. After a drunkenly difficult Easter Sunday that landed him in some hot water with the local fuzz, Jim begins his first day at Dawson High School and finds himself also at odds with most of his fellow students – particularly a bully who is, of course, named Buzz.
During a field trip that day to the Griffith Observatory overlooking the city, Jim further antagonizes his new enemies by… uh… existing? Buzz isn’t a very understanding sort of person.
After slashing the tires of Jim’s ’49 Mercury coupe and trying to get a knife fight going, Buzz challenges him to a “chickie run” at Millertown Bluff, setting the stage for the film’s climactic stolen car race. Continue reading
Rebel Without a Cause – Red Windbreaker and Jeans
The poster for Rebel Without a Cause (1955), featuring James Dean as Jim Stark in his iconic windbreaker and jeans.
Vitals
James Dean as Jim Stark, confused suburban high school student and loner
Los Angeles, Spring 1956
Film: Rebel Without a Cause
Release Date: October 27, 1955
Director: Nicholas Ray
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry
Background
Sixty years ago today – September 30, 1955 – was the famous fatal car crash that ended James Dean’s life at the age of 24. At the time of his death, he had only completed acting in three films (other than uncredited bit parts), but those performances made more of an impact than anyone could have guessed.
After his breakout role in East of Eden in 1955, Dean quickly followed it up with his performance as the troubled and tortured Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause, a representation of teenage angst that gave a glimmer of hope to millions of teens throughout the country who were disgusted by the falsely naive and puritanical state of 1950s society. Teens could actually relate to the frustrated Jim Stark rather than the squeaky clean Andy Hardy or mischievous doe-eyed Beaver Cleaver. Dean’s electric performance captivated young audiences that began copying his style. Continue reading
Rebel Without a Cause – Jim’s Easter Suit
James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
Vitals
James Dean as Jim Stark, confused suburban high school student and loner
Los Angeles, Easter 1956
Film: Rebel Without a Cause
Release Date: October 27, 1955
Director: Nicholas Ray
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry
Background
Other than The Passion of the Christ and those of its ilk, few are able to name a film that takes place around Easter. Little realize that Rebel Without a Cause actually begins with James Dean’s drunken loner Jim Stark drunkenly making his way down a suburban street on Easter Sunday evening.
Rebel Without a Cause is groundbreaking in many ways. The story thrusted the issue of suburban moral decay into the faces of deniers that refused to believe their “safe” post-war communities were anything but pleasant. The film also marked the first and last top billing for James Dean, who would die in a fatal car accident less than a month before its release, a sad reflection of an incident portrayed in the movie. Continue reading