They're not the Breakfast Club. But the nearly 40 high school students who came from across the Bronx to star in Michel Gondry's "The We and the I" reflect the same timeless struggles for identity and connection that informed John Hughes's seminal 1985 teen flick.

"We're not from your suburban high school, with the jock and the cheerleader," said 19-year-old Meghan Murphy, who plays Niomi, one of the teenagers whose bus ride home after the last day of school leads to life-changing revelations. "One...