Jen and I watched St. Elmo’s Fire <\/i>yesterday, before going out for some beers. She and I hadn’t seen each other in quite some time, so we sat on her couch, we blabbed our heads off, we caught up with each other … it was wonderful. Just wonderful. We began to surf through the TV and gasped, as one, when we saw that St. Elmo’s Fire <\/i>was on.<\/p>\n
That movie was so much a part of that specific and vaguely ridiculous cultural moment of my late teens. So we settled in, ecstatic, and watched St. Elmo’s Fire.<\/p>\n
Jen knows the entire movie by heart. I was quite impressed.<\/p>\n
I haven’t seen it in a while. I had forgotten some things.<\/p>\n
— how cute Andrew McCarthy was in it. He has morphed into something not so cute, but he was at his cutest during St. Elmo’s Fire<\/i>. <\/p>\n
— Of course Judd Nelson, the most despicable character in the film, is a Republican. Of course. It’s shorthand for “asshole-prick who fucks every girl in town, and then comes home and makes his prissy anorexic girlfriend wear slutty lingerie in order to assuage his guilt”. All of that adds up to: Republican.<\/p>\n
— The OUTFITS!!!! I mean, there’s almost too much to discuss. The flashbacks of my entire past! I’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n
— Rob Lowe’s HAIR.<\/p>\n
— The feeling I got from Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, and Judd Nelson, primarily, that this was their “segue” out of teen flicks. Watch the scene where Sheedy and McCarthy get drunk together before they fuck. And especially watch how they hold their glasses<\/i>. It’s not like real people hold their glasses when they’re getting drunk. Their behavior explicitly telegraphs: “I USED TO BE IN TEENAGE MOVIES WHERE I COULDN’T DRINK. NOW I’M A GROWN-UP AND HOO-HOO-HOO – LOOK AT ME GETTING DRUNK!” They held their glasses of whiskey self-consciously<\/i> and self-importantly. It is ridiculous.<\/p>\n
— Again, I have just got to come back to the CLOTHES. Here are some of the items: skinny ties worn by the guys, socks pulled up over the hem of your jeans, enormous lace collars worn by the girls, flouncy glittery skirts (a la Cyndi Lauper), bracelets which stack themselves up all the way to the elbow – and then when Rob Lowe was playing his sax like a banshee in the club, he wore this skinny head-band. HA. The headband! Also, un-matching earrings. Or just one earring. And the earrings were ALWAYS of the dangly variety. There was a lot of pastels.<\/p>\n
— One other thing: the annoying-ness of the clothes of Mare Winningham. Apparently, if you are a virgin, it also means that you have no access to fashion magazines. It means that if you are the last virgin in your group of friends, you must have a goofy page-ball haircut that cups your face like a mixing bowl, you must wear thick lumpy PINK sweaters, and long plain plaid skirts, with stockings that are thick and opaque. Virgins clearly don’t know how to dress. Everybody knows that. Also, you must wear THE MOST UNATTRACTIVE eyeglasses possible, eyeglasses that, put together with your long plain skirts, make you look like Gloria Steinem in a Mennonite colony.<\/p>\n
Personal note:<\/p>\n
When I saw this movie for the first time, in the movie theatre, I was the last virgin in my group of college friends. And although I very much related to Mare Winningham’s journey (I’ve always loved her acting), I was so MAD about her clothes. I took it personally. It seemed to say: Virgins don’t know about fashion.<\/p>\n
So needless to say, Jen and I had an absolutely wonderful time, watching this movie, and strolling down memory lane.<\/p>\n
There was some memorable commentary.<\/p>\n
— I said at one point, “This movie is a PART of our generation!”<\/p>\n
Jen agreed enthusiastically, “Oh, I related to every one of these characters.” (Ally Sheedy strolls by with this huge lace collar) Jen goes on: “I didn’t wear lace<\/i>, but…”<\/p>\n
— During the scene when Judd Nelson walks in on McCarthy and Sheedy having sex — he just stands there, looking at the two of them, forever … back, forth, back, forth, looking, looking, looking … before he turns and walks out.<\/p>\n
Jen said, “You wouldn’t just stare<\/i> at someone, though.”<\/p>\n
I said, “If you were a soulless Republican, you would.”<\/p>\n
— I randomly diagnosed Demi Moore with a mild case of TMJ.<\/p>\n
— At the party scene (where Sheedy confronts Nelson about his “extra-curricular love life”) – Sheedy wore a black black dress with an absolutely enormous wide white-lace collar – coming down in a triangle, like a middy blouse almost. I took one look at her and began to sing.<\/p>\n
“Climb every mountain … ford every stream…”<\/p>\n
— Every time Mare Winningham appeared, I had to comment on her terrible old-lady clothes. “LOOK at her sweater.” “Oh my God, look at those STOCKINGS!” “Hello, with the terrible glasses.” “Can she LOOK any more goofy right now??”<\/p>\n
Finally, I exclaimed, in righteous indignation, “I<\/i> was a virgin, but I did NOT dress like an Amish woman!”<\/p>\n
Final comment<\/i>:<\/p>\n
In terms of the “St. Elmo’s Fire” scene – with Demi Moore huddled in the empty red-walled room, with the blowing pale-blue curtains, and the huge doll-clown propped up against the wall … with Rob Lowe putting that flame up into the air …<\/p>\n
There is such a cheesy element to that whole scene (what’s with the clown??) But still: After so many years, I remembered the whole thing almost word for word, image for image. There is something classic about it, something absurdly memorable.<\/p>\n
Oh, and lastly<\/i>: Ally Sheedy is an IDIOT for not going with Andrew McCarthy in the end, and for making the choice to find her “own life”, and trying to be by herself. Sorry. You’re an idiot. Love like that doesn’t visit twice. Believe me, sweetheart, I know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jen and I watched St. Elmo’s Fire yesterday, before going out for some beers. She and I hadn’t seen each other in quite some time, so we sat on her couch, we blabbed our heads off, we caught up with … Continue reading