Lucas

"It's about falling in love. For the first time."

1986 1h 40m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 275

ComedyDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A brilliant but socially inept 14-year-old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends – Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love – fall for each other.

“It's about falling in love. For the first time.”

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Cast

Corey Haim
Lucas
Kerri Green
Maggie
Charlie Sheen
Cappie
Winona Ryder
Rina
Courtney Thorne-Smith
Alise
Tom Hodges
Bruno
Guy Boyd
Coach
Jeremy Piven
Spike

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Seltzer
Writers: David Seltzer
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

40 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Seltzer, shot by Reynaldo Villalobos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dave Grusin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Priscilla Nedd-Friendly shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Corey Haim and Kerri Green and Charlie Sheen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "It's about falling in love. For the first time.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0091445 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Seltzer directs. Reynaldo Villalobos behind the camera. Dave Grusin scores. Priscilla Nedd-Friendly cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

140 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by David Seltzer, shot by Reynaldo Villalobos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Dave Grusin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Priscilla Nedd-Friendly shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Corey Haim and Kerri Green and Charlie Sheen carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "It's about falling in love. For the first time.".
7IMDB entry: tt0091445 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 16 themes, including "chicago, illinois", "high school", "american football", "bullying".

The technical file

Cinematography: Reynaldo Villalobos
Original score: Dave Grusin
Editing: Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Costume design: Molly Maginnis
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $8,200,000
Return: 137% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Lucas (1986)

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David Seltzer

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Peter McGinn2020-09-12
★ 7/10
This is one of many movies I watched and recorded many, many years ago, probably off the fairly new HBO channel. I liked it enough at the time to not only keep the vhs tape, but also, when we transitioned to dvd, I used my DVD player/recorder to transfer it to a disk. Of course the viewing quality is subpar, but when I saw it is on a streaming service I don’t subscribe to, I decided to watch my flawed copy. I didn’t quite like it as much as I did previously, but perhaps the intervening 30 years have something to do with that. It is still a pleasant watch. Corey Haim does a fine job portraying the brainy nerd who is advanced scholastically and attends with students a couple years old than he is. He is basically a Junior high (or middle school) student in high school. Lucas spends much of the movie pretending. He assumes he has a chance with an attractive older girl who obviously just wants to be friends, he tells fibs about his living situation, and he unrealistically tries out for the football team. I thought the movie could have done more with Winona Rider’s character. She has a few lines but she is interested in Lucas herself, and I suspect more of her was on the cutting room floor. The scenes of the actual football plays on the field were totally false. I know that science fiction, for example, doesn’t always use appropriate science to explain stuff that happens, but just a little consulting with someone who knows the game at all could have made the plays accurate without changing the result. Come on, refs! There is a small twist at the end that is a nice touch, an appropriate ending for a movie aimed largely at teens.
kevin20192025-01-03
★ 8/10
"Lucas" is a low key film throughout which tackles the difficult subject of first love and all the pain and heartbreak it can sometimes bring. It doesn't treat such delicate matters of the heart in a superficial manner and there is ample opportunity to actually get to know the small ensemble of characters at the heart of this film and that provides us with a genuine reason to become interested in them and in what happens to each one of them during the unfolding events of the story. The overall ambitions of this film are extremely modest and that is its strength, so when young Lucas achieves a measure of respect from his once dismissive peers this triumph has a lasting effect in what is essentially a memorable and well made film.