What do you think?
Rate this book
Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies
Jon Bernstein, film critic for Spin magazine critiques his favorite teen movies from the golden age of the '80s. The Brat Pack and their contemporaries have grown up, but celluloid has them flickering forever, angst-ridden, haunted, guileless, cocky, stripped to their briefs, and all dressed up "pretty in pink." 25 photos, 8-page color insert.
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 1997
8 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Bernstein
26 books56 followersI am the author of Bridget Wilder: Spy-In-Training.
Bridget Wilder is an adequate daughter, an unexceptional student and a mediocre friend. She's just found out she's also the biological daughter of one of the world's most lethal and notorious spies, the legendary Carter Strike.
Now Bridget lives in two worlds. One, where her family forgets her birthday and so-called class clowns call her Midget Wilder to her face. And another world, where she's trained by a covert CIA department to become a fast, smart, fearless ,gadget-toting secret agent who's tough enough to take on the most fearsome of bad guys.
How many secrets can she keep? And how many secrets are still being kept from her. When you're a a spy-in-training, do you ever really know who you can trust?
I'm also the co-author of Mad World: An Oral History Of New Wave Artists And Songs That Defined The 1980s, which features brand new interviews with the likes of New Order, The Smiths, Duran Duran, Echo & The Bunnymen, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, OMD, Thomas Dolby, ABC, Thompson Twins and many, many more.
I also wrote the YA book Hottie which has been described, not by me but accurately, as Clueless meets X-Men. It's packed with as much comedy, action, unrequited crushes, requited crushes and destruction of designer clothes as I could pack into 320 pages.
It's ridiculously over-the-top sequel was titled Burning Ambition.
I'm also the author of Knickers In A Twist which is a dictionary of British slang that addresses Cockney rhyming slang, TV catchphrases, pop-culture references, swearing and incomprehensible abuse that I brought with me from my native Scotland.
My first book was called Pretty In Pink: The Golden Age Of Teen Movies which was an extremely un-intellectual look at the 80s, taking in every genre from slasher to gross-out and paying extended homage to the John Hughes canon.
I also write the occasional screenplay, with the Disney evergreen Max Keeble's Big Move, Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan, Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector (I've got a mortgage, okay?) and the upcoming Jackie Chan movie The Spy Next Door to my name.
As I mentioned, I was raised in Scotland, spent some time in New York and moved to Los Angeles a few years ago.
I'm on Facebook and you can also find me on www. jonathanbernsteinbook.blogspot.com where I talk more about Hottie, discuss the latest reality show that's making me mad but I can't stop watching and post videos of ancient Scottish comedians.
I've also started a blog for my slang dictionary. Bookmark www.knickersinatwistbook.blogspot.com and learn a new word or phrase every day. Some of them will stop you getting punched in the face. Others will get you hit even harder!
Bridget Wilder is an adequate daughter, an unexceptional student and a mediocre friend. She's just found out she's also the biological daughter of one of the world's most lethal and notorious spies, the legendary Carter Strike.
Now Bridget lives in two worlds. One, where her family forgets her birthday and so-called class clowns call her Midget Wilder to her face. And another world, where she's trained by a covert CIA department to become a fast, smart, fearless ,gadget-toting secret agent who's tough enough to take on the most fearsome of bad guys.
How many secrets can she keep? And how many secrets are still being kept from her. When you're a a spy-in-training, do you ever really know who you can trust?
I'm also the co-author of Mad World: An Oral History Of New Wave Artists And Songs That Defined The 1980s, which features brand new interviews with the likes of New Order, The Smiths, Duran Duran, Echo & The Bunnymen, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, OMD, Thomas Dolby, ABC, Thompson Twins and many, many more.
I also wrote the YA book Hottie which has been described, not by me but accurately, as Clueless meets X-Men. It's packed with as much comedy, action, unrequited crushes, requited crushes and destruction of designer clothes as I could pack into 320 pages.
It's ridiculously over-the-top sequel was titled Burning Ambition.
I'm also the author of Knickers In A Twist which is a dictionary of British slang that addresses Cockney rhyming slang, TV catchphrases, pop-culture references, swearing and incomprehensible abuse that I brought with me from my native Scotland.
My first book was called Pretty In Pink: The Golden Age Of Teen Movies which was an extremely un-intellectual look at the 80s, taking in every genre from slasher to gross-out and paying extended homage to the John Hughes canon.
I also write the occasional screenplay, with the Disney evergreen Max Keeble's Big Move, Just My Luck with Lindsay Lohan, Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector (I've got a mortgage, okay?) and the upcoming Jackie Chan movie The Spy Next Door to my name.
As I mentioned, I was raised in Scotland, spent some time in New York and moved to Los Angeles a few years ago.
I'm on Facebook and you can also find me on www. jonathanbernsteinbook.blogspot.com where I talk more about Hottie, discuss the latest reality show that's making me mad but I can't stop watching and post videos of ancient Scottish comedians.
I've also started a blog for my slang dictionary. Bookmark www.knickersinatwistbook.blogspot.com and learn a new word or phrase every day. Some of them will stop you getting punched in the face. Others will get you hit even harder!
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 22, 2025
A fairly comprehensive guide to 1980s and beyond teen movies. Sometimes I did laugh out loud, like when he compared Corey Feldman to Peter Lorre.
My parents had good taste (they are both dead so I can say this now). They took me to see Breakfast Club in the theater when it came out. I was 8.
My mother adored Better Off Dead and took me see One Crazy Summer in the theater when I was 10. It was and isn’t nearly as good as Better Off Dead, but I appreciate it as an adult.
My parents had good taste (they are both dead so I can say this now). They took me to see Breakfast Club in the theater when it came out. I was 8.
My mother adored Better Off Dead and took me see One Crazy Summer in the theater when I was 10. It was and isn’t nearly as good as Better Off Dead, but I appreciate it as an adult.
June 1, 2013
80's films were a genre of their own, and if you add into the mix teen 80's movies, you get an explosion of taste that has no comparison. Teen 80's films were about sex, drugs, skipping school, staying out late, cruising the streets at night, talking on your own phone (land)line to your friends, getting pregnant, and getting caught smoking in the boy's or girl's bathroom at school. Yes, those were some fun times, and only if you grew up during that time will you be able to say that they were really fun times.
Most people who didn't grow up during those times would say, "how awful that must have been to see and deal with that everyday", but those people or kids probably grew up under helicopter parents, so they probably don't know what it means to have fun and be a kid at the same time.
The author of this books attempts to bring the reader in to this world where kids rule and the parents are always out of town for the weekend or some business trip. He breaks up the book by the type of movies, so for those horny 14 year old's there were the T&A films (or for the adult virgin ears Tits and Ass), for the hopeless teenage romantics there were the sappy romantic films where the girl always gets her secret crush, then there were the teens always running from danger in the bloodbath/zombie/slasher films, and for those that lived the real drama of high school there were the John Hughes films which brought light to every teenagers existence and why they were in the caste system they were, and for those that felt life was perfect there were the valley girl and Cluelss films. He made sure to cover every category there was of teens based on the films that were made for them.
The nice thing about this book was getting to find learn about movies that I never heard of and thanks to the wonderful world of YouTube, I was able to watch a lot of them. I have a couple of new favorite 80's films now. The thing I didn't like about this book was that it was written from someone who must have thought they were better than everyone else by how they wrote this book. The author would use rare words when a less difficult GRE or SAT level would have done just fine. It was like this author was told to write this book and so instead of appeasing to his audience, he wanted to vent his frustration by injecting difficult words so that the reader would get thrown off of their pace. That was not helpful, especially when explaining a film that has nothing more than tits and ass to talk about.
His frustration also went so far as to say how much he hated certain films and why the director even bothered to waste his time. So it was like a well written college paper but with personal notes through in, so for someone who loved most of the teen 80's films, you will find his choice of words and explanation difficult to swallow.
Other than that, I have a new list of 80's films to watch now. The one thing I miss though from 80's films was how true teens lived their life, there weren't so many restrictions and kids actually had fun back then. In a rare film that I watched, "Little Darlings," it was interesting to see how many kids smoked at camp and how young they were, but not only that, but the topic of sex and such were more rampant. It is good that smoking is not allowed, nor was it ever, but kids today talk about very diffident things, boys still talk about girls and vice versa, but never to the extent that they did back in the 70's and 80's. I don't think a kid growing up today would be able to survive one day with kids back in that time. They would get eaten up and taken advantage of before they even knew what happened to them. And for those that think otherwise, read the book, "Camp Camp" which is a nostalgic trip back to what camp life was like in the 70's and 80's and you will see what I am talking about.
The movie, "The Wild Life," showed what kids were like then, most of the kids went out and had fun, even if the sun had already gone down. That was something I enjoyed watching and seeing. Again, for those that grew in that time, they will understand what I mean.
So if you want a trip down memory lane, or just a true film buff that you want to learn about films of every genre and decade, make sure to put this on your list of books to read. You will be very surprised to find out some great films to watch.
Most people who didn't grow up during those times would say, "how awful that must have been to see and deal with that everyday", but those people or kids probably grew up under helicopter parents, so they probably don't know what it means to have fun and be a kid at the same time.
The author of this books attempts to bring the reader in to this world where kids rule and the parents are always out of town for the weekend or some business trip. He breaks up the book by the type of movies, so for those horny 14 year old's there were the T&A films (or for the adult virgin ears Tits and Ass), for the hopeless teenage romantics there were the sappy romantic films where the girl always gets her secret crush, then there were the teens always running from danger in the bloodbath/zombie/slasher films, and for those that lived the real drama of high school there were the John Hughes films which brought light to every teenagers existence and why they were in the caste system they were, and for those that felt life was perfect there were the valley girl and Cluelss films. He made sure to cover every category there was of teens based on the films that were made for them.
The nice thing about this book was getting to find learn about movies that I never heard of and thanks to the wonderful world of YouTube, I was able to watch a lot of them. I have a couple of new favorite 80's films now. The thing I didn't like about this book was that it was written from someone who must have thought they were better than everyone else by how they wrote this book. The author would use rare words when a less difficult GRE or SAT level would have done just fine. It was like this author was told to write this book and so instead of appeasing to his audience, he wanted to vent his frustration by injecting difficult words so that the reader would get thrown off of their pace. That was not helpful, especially when explaining a film that has nothing more than tits and ass to talk about.
His frustration also went so far as to say how much he hated certain films and why the director even bothered to waste his time. So it was like a well written college paper but with personal notes through in, so for someone who loved most of the teen 80's films, you will find his choice of words and explanation difficult to swallow.
Other than that, I have a new list of 80's films to watch now. The one thing I miss though from 80's films was how true teens lived their life, there weren't so many restrictions and kids actually had fun back then. In a rare film that I watched, "Little Darlings," it was interesting to see how many kids smoked at camp and how young they were, but not only that, but the topic of sex and such were more rampant. It is good that smoking is not allowed, nor was it ever, but kids today talk about very diffident things, boys still talk about girls and vice versa, but never to the extent that they did back in the 70's and 80's. I don't think a kid growing up today would be able to survive one day with kids back in that time. They would get eaten up and taken advantage of before they even knew what happened to them. And for those that think otherwise, read the book, "Camp Camp" which is a nostalgic trip back to what camp life was like in the 70's and 80's and you will see what I am talking about.
The movie, "The Wild Life," showed what kids were like then, most of the kids went out and had fun, even if the sun had already gone down. That was something I enjoyed watching and seeing. Again, for those that grew in that time, they will understand what I mean.
So if you want a trip down memory lane, or just a true film buff that you want to learn about films of every genre and decade, make sure to put this on your list of books to read. You will be very surprised to find out some great films to watch.
February 1, 2009
I thought that this would be an homage to movies like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and the like, but was I wrong. The author basically tears the movies and the actors apart. I really didn't enjoy this book very much. Not even any behind the scenes secrets or anything like that.
September 6, 2021
Good nostalgia of 80s films that I watched in my teen years. Breakfast Club was my favorite film and still is with Beauty and the Beast. This book had great feel for the Movies and actresses and actors of the 80s. A great resource for the teen 80s film.
February 1, 2008
Pretty in Pink started out a lot of fun, reveling in just how much of a shock to the zeitgeist's system a movie like Porky's was and how glorious it was to have John Hughes at the controls of Hollywood for a few short years. But somewhere along the way, things go off the rails and it just begins to feel like one giant list of brief synopses of every teen eighties movie there is. Bernstein also seems to get more and more comfortable with his wisecracking tone throughout and lame potshots at Tina Yothers-level figures quickly started to wear thin on me.
Awesome cover though--holding it up with pride on the L train may have been what kept me churning thru it.
Awesome cover though--holding it up with pride on the L train may have been what kept me churning thru it.
February 27, 2009
A fun, if completely subjective guide to the overblown, big hair, MTV-generation movies of the 1980s geared squarely at teenage audiences of that decade. Not terribly informative, but a great shopping list of nostalgic, sentimental, goofy, even embarrassing videos. If you ever got oogly over the likes of Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson or Molly Ringwald (she's even on the cover and the title is from one of her films!), you'll enjoy this alright. Really could have used a working index and filmography at the end, however. Still waiting for the be-all, end-all film book of the 80s.
October 19, 2008
It was lots of fun to revisit some of the most-loved movies of my young-adulthood, but I was somewhat disappointed in that Bernstein didn't seem to like many of these movies very much - you would think that someone who wrote this book would be a big fan, and, though he has his favorites ("Pretty in Pink", "Clueless"), he's rather dismissive of some of the big ones ("Sixteen Candles", "The Breakfast Club"). The writing was a bit amateurly done, and the author is a BIG fan of certain phrases that he repeats multiple times throughout the book.
Sometimes fun, sometimes grating.
Sometimes fun, sometimes grating.
April 11, 2008
It's slightly embarrassing how much I really enjoyed reading this book when it came out. But it has really insightful essays on why teen movies in the 80s meant so much to people, what made them great and what made them ridiculous, and what it says about that generation.
August 24, 2007
Very thorough analysis of ALL the 80s teen movies; Heathers, Lost Boys, a chapter devoted to John Hughes, even Just One of the Guys! Nothing is better.
January 23, 2008
Enjoyable collection of essays on 80's teen movies, split into different genres, and what they said about that generation.
Want to read
April 1, 2014Top 5 Pop Culture - PLA
June 28, 2007
great source for 80s filmophiles
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews