Ferris Bueller's Day Off (9/10): Decades pass by and new generations continue to identify with this classic comedy.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

In only a span of six years, John Hughes managed to direct some of the best comedies from the 80’s which surprisingly hold up very well to this day. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is still regarded as a classic in the genre and despite being a simple mainstream movie, Matthew Broderick delivers such an iconic performance that many teens continue to fall in love with his character as the decades pass. The gags are handled with perfect comedic timing and the soundtrack has become such a recognizable tune in pop culture. I don’t know exactly what it is that has made this such a beloved film amongst American teenagers, but it seems to transcend generations over time because of its accessibility. It’s a light comedy about being young and mischievous that simply seems to delight and captivate audiences who are looking for some form of escape. It’s rare for a film with a simple premise like this to continue captivating audiences over time and even those teens who watched it in the 80’s and are now mature decide to go back and revisit it for nostalgic purposes or to introduce it to their now teenage sons. This is just further proof that no one had the comedic touch that Hughes had in the 80’s with his teenage comedies. I still prefer Planes, Trains, and Automobiles as his go to movie, but Ferris Bueller was a delightful experience. I look forward to catching up with some more of his classic films. I remember having seen classic scenes of this movie, but this was my first time watching it from beginning to end and I was delighted and surprised because I didn’t think I would ever like Broderick as much as I did here. This is by far his best performance.

The film takes place in Chicago where we are introduced to Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), a senior in High School who has decided to take the day off from school by fooling his parents into thinking he’s sick. Ferris constantly breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the audience letting them know what he’s thinking. His plan is so well thought out that even his friends at school think he’s developed a serious condition and are trying to raise money for his treatment. He’s the sort of guy that everyone in school dreams of being and his life motto is simply to enjoy life to the fullest. He personifies the spirit of youth and that is what makes him such a likable guy despite acting irresponsable at times. The only people who don’t believe him are his sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who is angry everyone keeps on falling for his lame excuses, and the school principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) who is determined to discover his lie and make him lose the school year for it. Ferris has everything planned out very carefully and is convinced his plan will work. He calls his best friend, Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), who has also taken a sick leave, but in his case he’s really feeling bad. Ferris convinces him to come pick him up and together they come up with a plan to help Ferris’s girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara), get out of classes. In a hilarious scene the duo call Principal Rooney impersonating Sloane’s father and asking him to give his daughter permission to leave the school because her grandmother has passed away. Ferris then convinces Cameron to take his father’s Ferrari and the adventure begins for the three friends through the streets of Chicago. 

Hughes has always excelled as a screenwriter and he is responsible for some of the funniest comedies from the 80’s and 90’s. He didn’t direct as many films, but he has been involved with many scripts. In Ferris Bueller he seems to have written a simple but perfectly executed script of a young teenager who is trying to live life to the fullest. He could’ve come out as cocky, but there is some heart to his character and it becomes incredibly hard not to root for him, especially when Hughes put so much emphasis during the opening scene portraying the dullness of High School life and then introducing Principal Rooney as such a douchebag. The scenes where he is desperately trying to uncover Ferris’s plan are incredibly cartoonish and over the top, but it is funny nonetheless. There are also a few heart felt scenes between Ferris and Cameron which make his character even more likable despite his bad influence. Broderick delivers the performance of his career and there are very few actors who can break the fourth wall the way he did here without interrupting the flow of the story (the other who comes to mind is John Cusack). There is also a great scene in which Ferris covers one of The Beatle’s song in a parade that simply adds to the already amazing soundtrack. Jones is hilarious as Rooney and it’s not often that these over the top villains are portrayed well. He never comes off annoying, and that’s something difficult to achieve. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a comedy that has transcended time and generations and it may come as a surprise to many considering it’s such a light and simple premise, but Hughes manages to work his magic.   

My Review: Election (6/10)

"You see, you can't interfere with destiny, that's why it's destiny. And if you try to interfere, the same thing's just going to happen anyway, and you'll just suffer."

Election is Alexander Payne's sophomore film and many consider it to be his best work since it uses some slick and witty dark humor to make a satirical political comedy. Payne manages to mix this political satire with High School life by using the school elections as a metaphor for American politics and in doing so the film is rather successful. Just like that famous short essay written by Robert Fulghum "All I Really Need to Learn I Learned in Kindergarten" where he claims that if we sticked to the basic rules we learned in kindergarten we would live in a better society, here Payne compares politics to High School elections and shows how corrupt the system actually can be and how selfish these people are. The dirty campaigns all begin in High School and these people seem to be doing things for themselves rather than to help others. I think this is what works best in Payne's ambitious film. I enjoyed the scenes that took place in the High School, but when Payne takes us out of the school to the characters homes it kind of loses its magic. I didn't care very much about their lives outside of school. One of the things that Payne does best is create interesting characters and that is why the actors give engaging performances because they have a lot to work with. These characters are usually dislikable, but somehow we end up routing for one despite all their flaws. Reese Witherspoon's character is so annoying that we actually want Matthew Broderick to succeed despite all the immoral acts he is committing. They both give strong performances, although compared to other Payne films I thought they were the weakest characters. Sideways still remains as my favorite Payne film, but his work here obviously opened a lot of doors for him. Payne is one of the best when it comes to creating midwestern American characters.

Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a very driven and ambitious student from Carver High who has high goals and expectations for her life. One of those goals is becoming class president, and despite the fact that she is running unopposed she still dedicates most of her time in school to achieving this. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is one of her teachers, but he doesn't like her very much because she had an affair with his best friend, Dave (Mark Harelik), a former teacher who got expelled from school when the director found out. Jim, who is married to Diane (Molly Hagan), decides to complicate things for Tracy by convincing the school jock, Paul (Chris Klein) to enter the race. When Paul's lesbian sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), discovers that he is campaigning for class president, she decides to run as well to pay him back for dating a former love interest of hers. And soon what seemed to be a simple election becomes chaotic as the dirty campaign begins. Will Tracy achieve her goal or will her teacher crash her dream?

The film has each character describe the events that are going on through voice over narrations. At first I thought it didn't work very well as it took me out of the story, but then I understood what Payne was trying to achieve (or at least this is what it transmitted to me), by letting his characters narrate what they were experiencing we understood what they were trying to achieve, the way they wanted others to see them, but of course their actions were completely opposite to the way they wanted to be perceived. It was like their own mask, because they were nothing like what they wanted to be perceived as (take Jim for example who considered himself a likable and influential teacher, but really he ends up being quite the opposite). The characters in this film are very well developed, but they were probably my least favorite from a Payne film. I wasn't a big fan of Chris Klein's performance, but the rest of the cast was pretty strong. The dark humor was witty, but it just wasn't my cup of tea and didn't care for any of the characters. Election may be one of Payne's most ambitious and satirical films, but I would rather sit through Sideways a hundred times than seeing these characters again.