but I don’t really understand why it’s in people’s favourites list
If I watched it today for the first time I would probably think the same … I only watched ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ for the first time 20 odd years after it was released and I was a bit ‘meh’ … even though pretty much everyone in it went on to be ‘stars’.
Some Kind of Wonderful, The Breakfast Club and Pretty In Pink are in my favourites list because they dealt with the universal ‘tropes’ of youth when I was a youth. My daughter also likes them as she too watched them as a teenager.
I don’t think SKoW is as strong as PiP – in hindsight John Hughes was probably already set to try and target his next generation with Home Alone etc – but SKoW had something else I think: apart from The March Violets! 😉
The scene in the garage where Watts ‘coaches’ Keith to check his kissing is up to scratch taps into teenage zeitgeist in a way that only John Hughes could at the time I think.