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Dalton is a freelance writer, novelist, and filmmaker from Orlando Florida. He currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and pursues writing full-time. He is an avid reader, film buff, and amateur historian who also publishes novels on the side. Dalton graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film and he often applies his industry-specific knowledge when writing about film and television. Along with his blog, Dalton's critical essays on film have been published in various places online.
Though John Hughes' teen movies set the tone for the decade, the most underrated coming-of-age film of the '80s was nothing like Hughes' classics. While teen-centric media existed before the 1980s, it exploded in popularity during the era. Filmmakers like John Hughes made movies that spoke directly to the experience of teens, teaching them lessons without being condescending.
However, his weren't the only teen movies, and there were plenty of '80s classics not made by John Hughes. These other films ranged in quality and tone, with some copying Hughes while others blazed their own trail. The decade's most underrated teen movie beat Hughes to the punch with a story unlike anything seen in coming-of-age films before or since.
The Last American Virgin Is A Coming-Of-Age Classic
Two years before John Hughes wrote and directed his first teen film, Sixteen Candles, a hidden gem called The Last American Virgin hit theaters in 1982. A remake of an Israeli film entitled Lemon Popsicle, The Last American Virgin looks like a typical teen sex comedy on the surface, but has so much more to offer.
The plot concerns a hapless teen named Gary, who has a crush on his classmate, Karen. Unfortunately, his popular friend, Rick, begins dating her instead. Gary and his friends embark on several farcical adventures in their quest to lose their virginity, but the film takes a hard left turn into the dramatic in the second half.
The state of teen comedies in the early 1980s was completely different from where the genre would end up by the end of the decade, but The Last American Virgin stands out from pre-Hughes contemporaries like Porkies. Though it's certainly guilty of sex comedy clichés, it's the film's dramatic ending that makes it a must-watch classic.
The film speaks to teen viewers directly, and it draws them in with typical comedy trappings before delivering crushing life lessons in the later scenes. The lessons aren't preachy or condescending, and the comedy helps the bitterness go down a little easier. The Last American Virgin is a film for teens, but it never sugarcoats harsher aspects of growing up.
The Last American Virgin Is Nothing Like A John Hughes Film
John Hughes' best films are some of the greatest movies of the '80s, and his teen films helped define coming-of-age cinema for generations. Though The Last American Virgin could be lumped in with Hughes' works, the film is too distinct to be in the same category. They both speak to teen viewers honestly, but Hughes' movies are much more optimistic.
Films like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink handle teen issues with all the gravity they deserve, but even their most dour elements are glossed over with a rosy view. The Last American Virgin eschews such an optimistic approach, which is both good and bad.
On one hand, it imparts lessons about trust that are important for teen viewers. However, on the other hand, those lessons are also bitter and hopeless. John Hughes' movies also impart lessons, but they do so with a subtle wink to the audience that lets them know that age and hindsight will make their teenage woes seem less important.
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