Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a great uniter.
What's not to like?
Everyone can relate to the story of just wanting to blow off their responsibilities and head
into the city for a day of unbridled, triumphant, mischievous fun.
It's an incredibly satisfying movie, which means there's one problem when it's over ... no
more Ferris Bueller.
If you need your Ferris fix, here are some movies you can check out that will definitely
deliver on that Bueller vibe.
"Bueller?
Bueller?
Bueller?"
Ferris Bueller's Day Off isn't just some movie about a rich kid cutting class and getting
away with it; it's about a young man wanting to keep his youthful spirit alive because
he fears that's all going to end with adult life.
"Let's surrender."
"Never."
Still, it's a movie that's extremely playful and one that breaks the normal conventions
of film.
Similarly, director Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, an adaptation of the Scott
Pilgrim graphic novel series, is about a guy making tentative steps toward the next chapter
in his life pursuing a real, mature romantic relationship while slaying his demons in an
eye-popping, surreal world that resembles a live-action video game.
Like Ferris, Scott has a to-do list that must be accomplished in a finite period of time.
In this case, it's defeating the seven evil exes of Ramona Flowers before he can be with
her.
Getting out alive will be tough for Scott, but, like Ferris, he's very confident in his
abilities and extremely lucky when it comes to dealing with the forces that keep him down.
For millions of teenagers, their core social circle in high school boils down to two people:
a best friend and a boyfriend or girlfriend.
These represent two distinct kinds of intense love, and those are on display in Ferris Bueller's
Day Off, with its power trio of Ferris, his best friend, and his girlfriend traipsing
into Chicago for a day of hijinks.
These three are all very close in different ways, and that real-life dynamic is similarly
explored in Craig Johnson's romantic teen comedy Alex Strangelove.
Alex and Claire are lifelong best friends who catch feelings when Claire’s plunged
into an emotional crisis.
They decide to book a hotel room and take things to the next level, which gets complicated
when Alex meets Elliot, a captivating and openly gay teen who is clearly into him.
That stirs up new sensations for Alex.
Is he realizing he's gay, or is he just experiencing some major anxieties about losing his virginity
and discovering himself?
Lots of fantastical, Ferris Bueller-esque reality-busting segments help make Alex Strangelove
an entertaining and honest comedy.
"When it comes to mating, I'm not really sure what kind of animal I am."
Romantic comedy filmmaker Richard Curtis loves a good novelty format.
Four Weddings and a Funeral has a unique framing device, Love Actually tells dozens of intertwined
tales, and About Time is the lifelong love story of a man and his one and only, but that
man has the ability to rewrite history to his advantage.
Domhnall Gleeson plays Tim, a man who inherits his father's ability to play around with time,
which he uses to secure a girlfriend in Mary and make everything feel perfect.
That is, until he messes it all up, because time, like love, is tricky and delicate.
In the words of Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast, and if Tim doesn't slow down,
it might just pass him by.
While most of Ferris Bueller's Day Off doesn't actually take place inside of a high school,
it's still partially a movie about high school, its social strata, and how everything that
goes on there might seem important now, but ultimately isn't because it will all be over
soon.
Those themes and the metaphors to express them are strong in Dash Shaw's animated My
Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.
Dash and Assaf are best friends and writing partners at the newspaper at Tides High School,
a building which precariously sits on a cliff atop a fault line.
But when their newspaper editor gives Assaf an exclusive assignment, Dash's hurt feelings
prompt him to partake in a little guerrilla journalism to get back at them.
In the process, he discovers that the new auditorium being built on the top floor of
the school isn't up to code and threatens to send their school plummeting into the ocean.
Of course, that's exactly what happens, and as the school sinks into the sea, the three
friends work their way through the various floors in a desperate bid to reach the roof.
Along the way, they discover the ultimate truth: Even in chaos, you can't escape the
high school social system.
The "day off" in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is basically just a prop.
It doesn't really matter exactly how Ferris spent his ditch day in Chicago.
It's about Ferris enjoying what might be the best years of his life with his first love
and his best friend.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower explores the same themes, only in a much more profound,
dramatic, and emotional style.
After suffering from a severe mental health break, Charlie is an adrift and lonely high
school freshman until he meets two seniors: super-smart Sam and her dramatic, sarcastic
stepbrother Patrick.
The three endure the milestone events, good and bad, of a school year together, as Charlie
figures out who he is and learns to appreciate every moment.
Any fan of Ferris Bueller is bound to enjoy The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Ferris Bueller will always be the perfect cool teen.
Audiences never got a sequel that showed how the character fared as an adult, but that
story may have played out like Mr. Roosevelt does.
Noel Wells of Saturday Night Live wrote and directed the movie, and she also stars as
Emily Martin, a popular YouTube comedian who returns to her college town of Austin, Texas,
and is forced to confront the past and the choices she's made.
Not only does she have to stay with her ex-boyfriend, but she also has to contend with his current
girlfriend, who's extremely confident and well-adjusted.
Mr. Roosevelt examines what happens when someone impulsive, cool, and chaotic stays that way
past the point where it's no longer cute, all while real life passes them by.
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