Take Me Home Tonight

Loaded with 80s fashions and 80s music, Take Me Home Tonight feels like it could easily be one of those 80s film classics from John Hughes, or, more importantly, what happens with those kids from a John Hughes movie after they get out of high school.  Matt Franklin graduated from M.I.T. and should be working in a Fortune 500 company but in a bid to avoid maturity he works in a video store.  When the girl he’s had a crush on since high school walks in he lies to impress her, which leads to the night that will change his life forever.

Take Me Home Tonight follows Matt (Topher Grace), his twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) and his best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) as they all try to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.  Barry gave up college for a career he’s just lost and wants to get the time back.  Wendy has a whole life, with house and husband, laid out before her that she’s not completely sure she wants.  And Matt can’t seem to figure out what he wants at all, except that he wants to be with Tori Fredreking.

Set on Labor Day in 1988, it is a classic all-in-one-night type of film where everything happens for a reason and by the end every character gets a resolution, even if it isn’t the resolution they wanted from the start.  Full of adventures and misadventures, the movie isn’t just a tribute to Hughes, but of all the 80s era of films with shades of Less Than Zero along side Say Anything.  With a good mix of laughter, nostalgia, and heart warming emotion, the movie hits all the right spots and is totally worth seeing.  It isn’t going to win any Academy Awards, but it’ll certainly entertain you for a couple hours and leave you feeling good.

"Don't You Want Me" by Atomic Tom