Throwback Thursday: Movie Edition – “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1987)

Valentine’s Day might be long gone, but the time of the season for love never has to end!

Can’t Buy Me Love is a 1987 romantic comedy starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson. Ronald Miller is your average nerdy high schooler, who earned $1000 by mowing lawns the whole summer in order to buy a telescope. Cindy Mancini is a cheerleader and the school’s most popular girl. She attends a party in her mom’s expensive outfit, but unfortunately gets a drink spilled on it, thus, ruining it. In a panic, she heads down to the mall to get it dry-cleaned coincidentally the same day Ronald is going to go buy the telescope he has been waiting for. Excited to buy the telescope, he tests it out in the mall and spots Cindy who is frantically trying to get the owner of the dry-cleaning place to fix her outfit. The owner tells her there is no way he can dry-clean it and she will have to buy a second one that costs $1000. Ronald rushes over to Cindy and makes her a deal, “You pretend to like me and we go out for just a few weeks and that will make me popular.” Given her current situation, she decides she has no choice and goes out with him so he can use his $1000 to buy her the new dress. As Ronald and Cindy go out, both young teens learn about each other and their lives change forever.

This is a really great movie. I was engaged with it the whole time, even at some points yelling at the TV as if the characters could hear me. It is a romantic comedy and like most, very predictable. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched them my whole life, but there is a certain charm that romantic comedies have that makes you like them even if they’re cheesy and cliché. Yes, this is cheesy and cliché, but there are a lot of great scenes that really make the film. Love is strange in so many ways, but it’s always around us. It is an indefinite part of life that you really can’t escape, whether it’s happening to you or someone you know or in a book you’re reading or in a song you’re listening to. Love is something you cannot escape and it means a lot of different things for different people, but when you watch movies like these just for a moment love can be the most amazing thing to ever happen to this world. Love can be everything you ever wanted and love can overcome anything for just this short amount of time and it makes you feel wonderful.

Other than being a romantic comedy, I think a lot of teens can relate because this movie is also about changing as a person and how that not only affects you, but the people you surround yourself with. It’s also about the pressures of being popular as well as the pressure to be popular that many teens face going through high school, so if you watch this movie there’s a lot to learn from it.

Want a movie that will leave you feeling like love is the greatest force on this universe? Want a movie that is cheesy but worth it? Want a movie that will make you laugh? If you want any of these, watch it; since this is available on Netflix as I’m sure many of you have, it can definitely be something to watch while you’re doing homework or just relaxing. Enjoy!