Hotties, High School, and Hijinks: The Essential John Hughes On Streaming

Before he was the voice of teen angst in 1980s America, John Hughes was an up-and-coming comedy scribe. His biggest success? The National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise. It’s sometimes easy to forget that the man who gave us the tender comedy of Pretty in Pink also invented all those hijinks en route to Wally World. [Where to Stream National Lampoon’s Vacation]

John Hughes made his directorial debut with this hilarious and heartfelt look into the life of a perfectly average (but absolutely lovely) teenaged girl. Sam Baker is your typical sophomore, but her family is too caught up with her sister’s wedding plans to remember her sixteenth birthday. Sam goes to the school dance that night and encounters a series of characters that change her destiny forever. [Where to Stream Sixteen Candles]

The Breakfast Club is possibly the most beloved John Hughes film of all time. In just one film that takes place on one Saturday morning, Hughes harnessed the collective angst that infected teens across America. He gave us “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal” and taught us that each stereotype represented a real person who deserved love and happiness. [Where to Stream The Breakfast Club]

Weird Science is John Hughes’ triumphant ode to teenaged horniness. Two awkward geeks decide that since they can’t get with a girl, they’ll create one. With a bit of gumption and a lot of genius, they bring Kelly Le Brock to life. It’s a campy ’80s take on the Pygmalion tale that is still as delightfully silly as it was thirty years ago. [Where to Stream Weird Science]

John Hughes didn’t direct Pretty In Pink, but his fingerprints are all over it. It’s a beautiful ode to the stress and wonder of being a teen in love, a platform for his muse Molly Ringwald to shine, and chock full of snippy one liners and fantastic musical moments. [Where to Stream Pretty in Pink]

Is Ferris Bueller a hero or a tyrant? Chew on that for a while as you consider that there has never been a cheekier, more charming, or more entitled teen character than Ferris Bueller. After championing the nerds, the freaks, the outcasts, and the invisible kids, Hughes made an impossibly popular (and almost frightfully manipulative) kid his protagonist. We like Ferris Bueller because we all wish we could be him. [Watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on Netflix]

In a space of three years, John Hughes wrote Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, so it makes sense that he started to run out of steam. Some Kind of Wonderful is both loved and hated because it’s an obvious gender-swapped version of Pretty in Pink. Still it marks the end of Hughes’ “high school” days. [Where to Stream Some Kind of Wonderful]

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was Hughes attempt to pivot away from the world of high school and back to the madcap contemporary capers that he had his earliest successes with. John Candy and Steve Martin co-star as two men who are forced to join each other on a zany cross-country journey that involves, yes, planes, trains, and automobiles. [Watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles on Netflix]

Uncle Buck combined Hughes’ love of straight up raucous comedy with his penchant for understanding the drama of being young. John Candy stars as the titular Uncle Buck, a free-wheeling and fun-loving man-child tasked with watching his brother’s three kids. There’s big jokes, but also big heart. [Where to Stream Uncle Buck]

After exhausting himself on teens, John Hughes decided to focus a story on an even younger, and perhaps more troubled, youth: 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). Hughes wove a twisted Christmas yarn where an absurdly large family leaves one kid behind for the holidays — and he’s got to not only fend for himself, but ward off a couple of crooks. [Where to Stream Home Alone]

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!