10 Best Joel Schumacher Films

Probably the most important ‘80s coming of age movie not directed by John Hughes, St. Elmo’s Fire helped to make big time stars of Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, and temporary stars of the usual brat pack suspects: Sheedy, Nelson, McCarthy, Estevez.

A film about self absorbed, good looking young folk making a melodramatic mountain out of some pretty standard problems, St. Elmo’s Fire is very much of its time, in the dress sense, the music, and the complete self absorption of the Me Decade.

But it’s an undeniably effective film, with Schumacher, no spring chicken by this time, able to tap into that youthful exuberance, when every issue seems earth shattering, and the idea of proper, responsible adulthood utterly chilling. It’s a film that highlights the generation gap expertly - contemporaneous critics hated it, either because they couldn’t recognise themselves in the self obsessed characters, or because they could.

St. Elmo’s Fire is not as fondly remembered as the likes of The Breakfast Club, but for fans of the Brat Pack oeuvre, it remains essential, for the sheer star power (regardless of subsequent fade) on offer.