8 Essential John Hughes Movies (That Aren’t John Hughes Movies)

With his coming-of-age classics like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, filmmaker John Hughes captured the simple wonders and dramatic moments of suburban teenage life. But of course, he was also a prolific writer of screenplays, and the best movies he wrote are just as timeless as the ones he directed, infused with a unique blend of teenage heartbreak, slapstick comedy, and family dynamics.

Hughes passed away in 2009, but as the 40th anniversary of Pretty in Pink approaches, there’s no time like the present to celebrate his screenwriting legacy. Jump into our streaming guide below to kickstart your non-John Hughes movie marathon.

Why do movie buffs love John Hughes?

Hughes is revered for movies that encapsulate the humor and complexity of suburban family life. He wrote with biting insight about class dynamics and brought out the jokes in timeless tensions between kids and their parents. His characters could be absurd, offensive, compassionate, and tragic all at once. His films feature incredible soundtracks of now-iconic ’80s pop and rock jams, and many also serve as love letters to Chicago, the Midwest metropolis where he grew up.

“It can be hard to remember how scarce art for and about teenagers was before John Hughes arrived,” Molly Ringwald, a Brat Pack favorite, once wrote about her beloved mentor. “No one in Hollywood was writing about the minutiae of high school, and certainly not from a female point of view.”

Here are the best movies that John Hughes wrote—and here’s how to watch them

The best way to watch John Hughes movies is by theme. The movies he wrote generally split between teenage coming-of-age stories, slapstick holiday heartwarmers, and lowbrow comedies about dysfunctional families.

There is some overlap depending on the movie—Home Alone is a holiday heartwarmer that hinges on some serious parental oversight, for example. Some of these efforts are stone-cold classics, but others haven’t aged well at all. You’ll want to stay relatively consistent in terms of storyline and tone so you don’t end up experiencing cognitive whiplash.

That said, you also can’t go wrong with watching Hughes’ best screenwritten movies in the order that they were released, just for simplicity’s sake.

The best John Hughes-written movies

• National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
• Pretty in Pink (1986)
• Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
• The Great Outdoors (1988)
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
• Home Alone (1990)
• Career Opportunities (1991)
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) | Director: Harold Ramis | VOD

Inspired by Hughes’ memories of his own family vacations growing up, this spinoff from the National Lampoon comedy magazine introduces Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold—the perennial striving dad who is determined to make the best of a doomed cross-country family road trip. Griswold proves himself a major jackass on the way to Walley World, and there’s something beautifully tragic about his desperate need to overcome all odds in the vain pursuit of bonding with his wife and kids.

Pretty in Pink (1986) | Director: Howard Deutch | AMC+, VOD

In her final collaboration with Hughes, Molly Ringwald follows up Sixteen Candles with a poignant starring role as a kid from a blue-collar family making her way through the treacherous clique culture of her suburban Chicago high school. She falls in love with a “richie” from a higher economic bracket, and their back-and-forth still stands out for how painful and real it is. Let’s not forget Duckie, her friend-zoned bestie and a bitter nice guy for the ages. The soundtrack also deserves a mention because it’s stacked with swooning British synthpop jams.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) | Director: Howard Deutch | Paramount+, VOD

Set in the South Bay of Los Angeles, Some Kind of Wonderful is a much cooler version of Pretty in Pink, retold intentionally with the genders reversed. This story is a bit rougher and tougher but it also has way more personality, thanks in part to the efforts of Mary Stuart Masterson, who plays a rock ’n’ roll drumming tomboy named Watts. The film brilliantly subverts the usual tropes of a teen romantic comedy and is all the more refreshing as a result.

The Great Outdoors (1988) | Director: Howard Deutch | VOD

Just like with Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful, Hughes teamed up again with director Howard Deutch for this John Candy and Dan Aykroyd vehicle. And like Vacation, it follows a “vacation from hell” premise, this time with dueling families at a Wisconsin lakefront cabin. Not all the jokes land today and it can honestly be a painful watch, but it’s bound to awaken core memories of traumatic vacations for some viewers.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) | Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | VOD

Undoubtedly the best of the Vacation movies, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation gives Chevy Chase plenty of opportunities to once again ham it up as Clark Griswold. But in the process, he ends up offering a disarmingly poignant portrayal of a struggling father. Hughes goes extra naughty with plenty of ridiculous jokes, but there’s a thoughtfulness at the core that makes Christmas Vacation a holiday classic.

Home Alone (1990) | Director: Chris Columbus | Disney+, VOD

Aside from the fact that it’s hilarious, touching, and deeply cathartic, Home Alone is also just a perfect screenplay. The plot falls into place like clockwork, the noir-ish movie-within-a-movie that is Angels With Filthy Souls stands the test of time (“Keep the change, you filthy animal!”), and the Wet Bandits get brutalized in one of the most elaborate Christmas Eve showdowns ever put to film.

Career Opportunities (1991) | Director: Bryan Gordon | VOD

After five straight years of near-home runs, Hughes’ screenwriting oeuvre takes a serious nosedive with Career Opportunities, a tawdry teen-sex comedy featuring a young Jennifer Connelly. Hughes didn’t even want his name on this flop, dismissing it as “cheap and vulgar,” while fellow Chicagoan Roger Ebert delivered a savage takedown on Siskel & Ebert. Still, a famous clip from the flick has made the rounds on TikTok and the soundtrack kinda-sorta slaps.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) | Director: Chris Columbus | Disney+, VOD

Poor Kevin McCallister gets abandoned yet again by his neglectful parents—but at least this time he’s in New York City and has his dad’s credit card. Donald Trump reportedly “bullied” director Chris Columbus into letting him make a cameo in the Plaza Hotel lobby. But hats off to the Talkboy (every kid’s favorite cassette recorder in the 1990s) and mad respect to the Central Park pigeon lady for keeping it real with her Irish accent.

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