Metacritic reviews

Molly Ringwald is radiant here as the eternal teen looking for love.

This is a fresh and cheerful movie with a goofy sense of humor and a good ear for how teenagers talk.

The premise is ordinary, but the film is distinguished by funny gags and excellent performances by Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.

The movie is cheerful and light, showcasing Mr. Hughes's knack for remembering all those aspects of middle-class American adolescent behavior that anyone else might want to forget.

Ringwald is engaging and credible. For the boys, there's a bright, funny performance by Anthony Michael Hall.

Screenwriter John Hughes, making his directing debut, is at his best when he empathizes with the sensitivity in the ugly-duckling Ringwald and Hall characters. [04 May 1984]

Along with the lapses of taste that have become standard in pictures aimed at teen audiences, filmmaker John Hughes offers moments of wit and warmth.

Hall is very funny as the energetic adolescent pest and a good supporting cast includes the Cusack sibings John and Joan.

There are individual sequences alternately amusing and touching. [08 May 1984]

Hughes invokes the classical unities of time, place, and plot symmetry, yet he trashes his careful structure every time he needs a gag - destroying the integrity of his characters, shattering the plausibility of his situations.