In five days, Penn’s seniors will have their last day of college classes. 14 days later, the Class of 2011 will engage in the drunken merriment of Senior Week. On May 16, they will become graduates under the watching eye of Denzel Washington. But then what?
The anxiety of post–university life has been captured in a number of films, but none handle the topic as beautifully as St. Elmo’s Fire. Literally. The cast of Joel Schumacher’s Brat Pack soap opera may be self–absorbed, egotistical yuppies, but they’re gorgeous. Seeing Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy fighting over Ally Sheedy or '80s Rob Lowe comforting Demi Moore will make even the most reluctant graduate embrace adulthood.
Seriously though, if the delightfully hokey writing of St. Elmo’s Fire is to believed, the “real world” doesn’t suck so bad. The post–graduate experience has its fair share of problems: affairs, drug problems and the struggle to find yourself. But your friends will continue to stick by you despite your laundry list of embarrassing blunders.
In other words, not far from college at all.
