“I want my life to be like an ’80s movie… But no, John Hughes did not direct my life.”

Emma Stone utters these words in the 2010 teen comedy Easy A, decades after the heyday of John Hughes had passed. Teen movies have remained a pinnacle of film culture, and to be honest, there have been some great ones (Easy A included). And yet, even now, there seems to be a yearning for those ’80s films and that culture; look at how Stranger Things has grabbed the world’s attention. Why is that? What is it about these films that makes them so enduring?

These stories are so incredibly simple, sum-them-up-in-a-single-sentence simple, yet they capture our hearts so innately. Perhaps it is just the contrast from the over-complicated, plot-twisting, mind-bending films that producers are so set on churning out these days. The simplicity of such ordinary narratives is a breath of fresh air, and even more so, it is their focus on characters that makes them so special to us.

A key element of the ’80s teen movie is its focus on characters fact that these stories are human stories about regular, everyday people. We long to see people like us on screen, and the people in these films are so normal: they are our families, our friends, our neighbours, our teachers… they are us. Yes, they get themselves into slightly weirder situations, and maybe they’re a bit prettier than average folk, but there’s something about them that reflects real life.

More specifically, it is these characters’ experiences of growing up. It’s Samantha from Sixteen Candles wanting to be seen. It’s Ferris from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off wanting to just enjoy the little things. It’s Brian from The Breakfast Club, not being able to deal with the pressure of school. There is not one character more relatable than the other, because every single one seems to capture a different facet of teen life. ’80s directors, especially John Hughes, have this uncanny ability to fully understand what it’s like to be a teenager. They capture the FOMO, the awkward crushes, the competitiveness with siblings for parents’ affection. These really simple things seem to shrink when you’re an adult, but when for a teenager, they are the biggest thing in the world.

And the beauty of these films is that they don’t belittle that – they treat these problems like they are the biggest thing in the world. They treat these characters as people whose opinions are cared about, as people with things worth saying. Teenagers aren’t always given this courtesy, yet these films never suggest that they shouldn’t. It’s not because these characters are perfect, because many are far from it, but it’s the reminder that growing up is such a big deal, and when we try to just dismiss it, we lose the beauty of it. As Ferris Bueller so famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”

Whether you’re currently going through that awkward stage of teenagedom currently, or whether that is a distant memory, revisiting these films makes these emotions so real. It’s nostalgic, it’s brilliant, and so so simple. It’s life. That’s what makes these films so enduring: they capture those moments in life that shape us without us realising it.