Fridae

If you watched a high school comedy in the 1980s, chances are the Everyman protagonist would be a genial proto-slacker who, with his motormouth sidekick, steers clear of the popular cliques in school, thumbs his nose at authority in general, and nurses a quiet crush on the unattainable popular girl who has the attention of all the jocks. And the main action of the film will take place in the space of one night – where our main characters will grow up, take risks, get humiliated, and win the girl. Chances are it’ll be directed by either John Hughes (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) or Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).

Fast forward to the year 2011 and we have Take Me Home Tonight, a tribute to that charming genre. Topher Grace (That 70s Show), Dan Fogler, and Anna Faris play protagonist, sidekick, and unattainable prize. Instead of a high school setting, the script transplants the trinity to a few years into their working lives in the heady 80s where America’s economy was booming, easy money was everywhere, and people consumed so conspicuously it might make some of our present Second Depression Era audience retch.

Topher Grace plays a proto-slacker university graduate whose malaise and cynicism about the 80s bubble economy leads him into a job with the video rental store at the mall. But when he runs into his old high school crush, he must pretend to be a Goldman Sachs hotshot, rob a car dealership, and attend a series of house parties – all to impress the girl of his dreams.

The hijinks that ensue are quite tame compared to modern gross-out and drug-addled comedies but are sufficiently funny and humane for the period comedies the film pays homage to. What we can take away from this though is the generous soundtrack featuring Duran Duran, Motley Crue, INXS, Grace Jones, Wang Chung and many more 80s musical icons. If you’re into black comedy, you can read Take Me Home Tonight as a very well-timed satire of not just the bubble economy and unbridled greed of the 1980s but the roaring noughties - whose bubble has truly deflated on us this year.