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I watched Can’t Buy Me Love on Netflix the other day. I don’t know why, I did. Maybe, I was just bored. Though, I must admit, I’m a stickler for cheesy coming of age type movies. Coming clean and being honest though, all bullshit aside, I really do love corny, cliché movies. Because at its core, these types of movies are always brutally honest.
The life lesson at the end of these types of movies are always brutally honest. Cant Buy Me Love for me is a brutally honest movie about wanting more, but then when you get what you want, you realize it isn’t as good as you thought it would be. Really cliché, really cheesy, but it’s totally true. But at its core though to me, the heart of the movie is really about what happens when you lose focus.
Now In the movie, The teenage nerd wanted to be popular. He was tired of his nerd lifestyle and he wanted something more. He wanted more out of the life that he was living. He had friends, he had his family, his younger brother did annoy him, but other then that he was living a pretty good life. He also saved up a $1000 dollars by cutting the grass over the summer. Now this is the 80s, so this Is a lot of money. I mean, it still is a lot of money today, but it’s a lot more back then. This nerd was balling and his life was pretty good.
But, he just wanted the popular life. He wanted a different life. He wanted the glitz and glamour of being popular. He wanted the admiration the popular kids had and everything that came with being popular. It was his last year of high school and wanted to graduate on a high note.
We can all relate to this in some fashion. Life can get pretty dull sometimes and then you look at other peoples lives and see them having so much fun. You question why your life isn’t popping like theirs and you get a little bit envious and jealous of those lives of those people. Their lives might not even be really popping, but from an outer sides perspective, it looks like it is.
The problem in the movie for the teenage nerd was what he wanted wasn’t really what he wanted. He initially wanted to get with the popular blonde girl, but then he focused way too heavily on getting popular and it nearly bit him in the ass in the end. He eventually got popular in the movie by seizing a moment by using his $1000 dollars he earned to get the popular blonde girl to fake date him for a month.
Now in the movie him wanting more out his life didn’t bite him in the ass. Not realizing what was really going was what nearly bit him in ass. During the fake dating month, the blonde girl slowly, but surely was starting to fall for him, but he wasn’t seeing this. He was going out with girl, chilling with girl, everything he’s always wanted, but he wasn’t seeing what was really going on.
He was blowing off his friends, but he wasn’t seeing it. His focus on being popular was blinding him from seeing this. The excitement of finally being popular was blinding him from seeing this all. And this is what always happens when were so focused on something.
When were focused on something, we don’t think properly. We don’t register the small details in our mind. We think about getting what we want and we disregard everything until we get what we want. I call it losing focus while being focused. That’s something Drake realized when he rapped the following lyric on his song Say What’s Real, never forget the moment you began to doubt, transitioning from fitting in to standing out. Drake was focused on becoming a rap star, but he understood everything that was going on with himself and around him.
Now near the end of the movie, the teenage nerd got brought back down to reality when the whole fake dating thing got exposed to the popular kids and the whole school by the blonde popular girl. Getting brought back down to reality made him see again. He was no longer blind.
The teenage nerd lost focused of the good life he was living before being popular and it completely screwed him over. That’s why, as much as the movie is about realizing that popularity means nothing or when you get what you want it doesn’t end up being what you want, it’s really more about what happens when you lose focus.
Because when you start to lose focus like the teenage nerd did with his popularity, your bound to screw yourself over eventually. He was so caught up in being popular and finally being popular, he wasn’t truly realizing what was going on. Losing focus made the blonde girl eventually resent him, his friends not like him and eventually everyone not liking him.
Now this movie came out nearly 30 years ago. The life lesson in the movie is still brutally true. As is with all cliche, corny coming of age movies. That’s why these movies age so well. And that’s why, I love these corny, cliché coming of age movies because damn, that’s still brutally true.
The crazy part is that If he didn’t lose focus, he could have seen he was ditching his friends and made time for them. If he didn’t lose focus, he would have realized the girl that he really liked was falling for him, but he lost focused. Nearly 30 years after this movies came out, the corny, cliche life lessons of this movie still hold true. Losing focus will always eventually screw you over.
Damn.
MY MOTTO IS: IF YOU WANNA WIN THE LOTTERY, YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE MONEY TO BUY A TICKET!
From The 6ix,With Love
Thank You For Reading
Sincerely, Kid From The 6ix
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