FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF

year: 1986 
rating: ****

This is a beautiful and brilliant teen flick about a popular everykid highschooler who takes a "day off", i.e. fakes illness/tricks his parents and has one hell of an afternoon. The most endearing and/or memorable characters aren't Ferris, but his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and the villain/principle Ed Rooney (Jeffery Jones), who's the B side to the film as he tries thwarting our hero's plan (other great characters are Jennifer Grey as his jealous older sister and Edie McClurg as Rooney's secretary). Ferris's Woody Alleneque monlogs straight into the camera (breaking the "4th wall) work perfectly and the adventure never slows down - well, not really. Towards the end things get a bit "dramatic" (as do many Hughes films when they hit upon "the moment of truth") as Cameron discovers himself by totaling his father's car. I also felt some of Ferris's opinions-through-narration about Cameron were kind of... cruel and didn't seem befitting to a kid his age... And perhaps Mia Sara was way too hot for Broderick? Or anybody? The late John Hughes did some terrific work in his day, and while I think "The Breakfast Club" is his masterpiece, and "Uncle Buck" is his funniest... this one sums up Hughes, the writer. The script was scribbled in six days. Not too shabby.