Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986): Grade: A

Is this film available for rent on Netflix Watch Instant, the iTunes Store, and Amazon Prime? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is available for rent through Netflix Watch Instant, the iTunes Store, and Amazon Prime.

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey, Lyman Ward, Cindy Pickett, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein, Del Close, Charlie Sheen, Richard Edson, Kristy Swanson, & Jonathan Schmock

Directed by: John Hughes

Written By: John Hughes

With Ferris Bueller’s Day Off the late writer/director John Hughes managed to catch lightening in a bottle. Sometimes, luck and timing will perfectly combine all the elements of a movie (plot, casting, setting, etc) to produce a result that becomes seminal and helps define a generation. Such films include Back to the Future, Field of Dreams, American Graffiti, Forrest Gump, Dazed and Confused, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. There is an unexplainable quality to these films that cannot be quantified, but one recurring element that they all share is a “coming of age” theme. These films may not rank among the best films ever made, but what makes them unique is how they so intimately connect with our romanticized memories of our own key life moments.

Facing a looming writer’s strike, it took less than a week for Hughes to write Ferris Bueller and he essentially shot the film based on the first draft of his screenplay. The film was Hughes’ love letter to his hometown of Chicago (“I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could, not just the architecture and the landscape, but the spirit.”) and he wrote the story with Matthew Broderick specifically in mind for the lead role of Ferris Bueller. The story takes place in 1 day in the life of Ferris Bueller, a high schooler whose philosophy on life is, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” As the film’s title says, Bueller decides to take the day off from school and have some fun with his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), and girlfriend (Mia Sara). However, there are those who want to spoil Ferris’ fun, namely the Dean of Students at Ferris’ high school, Edward R. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) and Ferris’ sister, Jeanie Bueller (Jennifer Grey).

That saying, “They don’t make them like they used to” is no more apt than it is for Ferris Buller. Not to sound like some grumpy old guy, but if Ferris Bueller were made today, it would undoubtedly be full of sexual innuendos, drug use, wall-to-wall product placements, and the comedy would probably be mean-spirited and sarcastic. Furthermore, in this day and age when major studio productions cost a minimum of $100 million to make, no risk-averse studio would have allowed John Hughes to take the creative liberties he did with Ferris Bueller by allowing him to insert such introspective scenes like the one that takes place at the Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately, Ferris Bueller would probably have to be funded as an indie movie through Kickstarter to have any chance of seeing light.

Like every single one of John Hughes’ film, Ferris Bueller’s appeal is not the story, but the characters. In fact, Hughes’ plotlines are really nothing but simplistic setups for his characters to grow into. The Breakfast Club was just about a group of high schoolers spending a detention Saturday in the library. Home Alone is simply about a boy who finds himself fending off a pair of burglars after being accidentally left behind at home by his parents. Weird Science is about two nerds who create the perfect woman with their computer. And Ferris Bueller is nothing more than a privileged suburban Chicago kid who ditches school to have a bit of fun. However, with all of these, what we most remember are the richly developed and very memorable characters that John Hughes created. Have a conversation with anyone about any John Hughes film and I can guarantee the focus of discussion will be on one of the characters.

The character of Ferris Bueller sort of reminds me of Michael J. Fox’s Alex Keaton character in Family Ties. Keaton was a dyed-in-the-wool Reagan Republican who always advocated the values of the Republican Party. Ferris Bueller doesn’t make any mention of the Republic Party nor Ronald Reagan, but his view on life clearly reflects the qualities of the Grand Ol’ Party. At the beginning of the film, when Ferris Bueller introduces us to his methods of faking out parents into thinking you are sick, he effectively tells us that life is all about experiencing the goods things in life (eating at nice restaurants, driving a Ferrari, going to ball games, etc.). This obviously requires money and it is safe to say that Ferris Bueller’s only reason for wanting to go to college and getting a job is to earn enough of it to maintain the rich lifestyle that he got to experience for 1 day in this movie. That was the essence of the Reagan 80’s where, as Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gecko famously said, greed was good.

Ferris Bueller is a privileged white kid who lives in a nice, suburban Chicago neighborhood. He lies to his oblivious parents, he skips school, his classmates think he is dying so they raise money that he doesn’t need, and he convinces his best friend to take his father’s prized Ferrari out for a spin even though he knows this will probably land his friend in deep shit. How can you possibly make such a character likable? And somehow, he is. Matthew Broderick imbues the character with an earnest innocence that prevents Bueller as coming off as being an arrogant, smarmy asshole. Ferris Bueller invites you to join in on the fun with him and it is difficult to not be taken in by his confidence and enthusiasm. Hughes succeeds in this partly by having Bueller break the 4^th wall and talk to the audience directly. Due to it being a comedy, it is very easy to overlook how difficult it is to write such a character without making him totally unlikeable. The serendipitous casting of the boyish and mischievous looking Matthew Broderick certainly helped in that regard, but the credit mainly goes to John Hughes for walking that precarious balance between easily fucking up the character and accomplishing the far more difficult task of pulling it off.

However, I am probably not alone in saying that my favorite character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Ferris Bueller’s best friend, the neurotic and awkward Cameron. It is amazing to think that when Alan Ruck was cast to play this high schooler, Ruck was almost 30 years old! And yet, never are you in doubt that Cameron is in high school. Many of the film’s greatest moments are those with Cameron (like the funny faces he makes at the fancy restaurant, his classic turn convincing Principal Rooney that he was Simone’s father to get her out of school for the day, and lest we forget, the film’s best scene in which Cameron decides to finally face up to his father). Cameron is the voice of caution and reason, but there is very little room for caution and reason in Ferris Bueller’s world, especially if caution and reason mean that Ferris has to go to school and be like everyone else.

The weakest character in the film, but the one every adolescent male in the 80’s probably masturbated to (along with Who’s the Boss’s Alyssa Milano…admit it) is Simone, played by Mia Sara. Molly Ringwald was reportedly interested in playing the role, but Hughes refused to cast her because he felt the role was too small for someone like Ringwald. He was right. The Simone character has very little to do except to dote on Ferris and follow the two guys around. She has very few lines and she is by far one of the most underdeveloped characters Hughes has ever written (even the small supporting role of the fucking school secretary, played by Mrs. Poole, has more dialogue and personality!).

As for the film’s antagonists, I never really dug the Edward Rooney character although I am a big fan of the actor, Jeffrey Jones (Amadeus, Beetlejuice). Principal Rooney is far too one-dimensional and the humor of having an idiotic authority figure no longer holds up. I would have preferred a less slapstick, less over-the-top approach to the character such as what Hughes did with the principal character in The Breakfast Club. On the other hand, as similarly one-dimensional as Ferris’ sister is, it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to not fall in love with Jennifer Grey (a pre-Dirty Dancing Jennifer Grey I might add). Unlike the caricature Hughes created with Ed Rooney, Jeanie Bueller realistically portrays every older bully sibling that every kid sibling has had the misfortune to live with. Her likeability is enhanced by the wonderfully hilarious and sweet scene where she finds herself at the police station and meets Charlie Sheen’s stoner character. Not only is it a funny scene (Sheen kills it), but we finally witness a thawing of Jeanie’s ice cold bitchiness and see a sweet side to her that adds a nice added layer to her character. Sidenote: Grey and Matthew Broderick ended up dating for awhile after this film.

One of the great things about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is that there is no romantic subplot involving a boy and a girl (unless you count the very brief Jeanie/Charlie Sheen encounter as a romantic plot, which it really is not). I think the real reason for this is that such a subplot would distract from the film’s true love story – John Hughes’ romance with his hometown of Chicago. Like I stated before, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Hughes’ love letter to his city. Frame by frame, you can sense Hughes’ excitement to play tour guide with his audience and show them not only the geographical aspects of Chicago, but to also give us a sense of the city’s spirit. All of this culminates in the now iconic scene where Ferris Bueller sings Danke Schoen in downtown Chicago. This may be a little too cheesy for today’s jaded audiences, but for me, it remains a memorably cheerful and wonderful scene that continues to bring a smile to my face despite how many times I have seen this movie.

It is impossible to quantify the brilliance of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. On the surface, this appears to be a fun, whimsical, and disposable teen comedy. But to shrug this film off is a huge mistake. This film offers it all – it is funny, smart, charming, insanely quotable, and it represents John Hughes at the peak of his career. By the way, I have not even mentioned the film’s great soundtrack, which is highlighted by the song that will forever be associated with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Yellow’s Oh Yeah. To appreciate the impact of this movie on our popular culture, think of this – Matthew Broderick has made MANY MANY other films throughout his career (WarGames, Election, Godzilla, The Producers) and yet, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off remains what he is best known for and I think it will forever be that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sleepy Hollow (1999): Grade: D: starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones, Casper Van Dien, Michael Gough, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Walken, Christopher Lee, & Martin Landau: directed by Tim Burton

Is this film available for rent on Netflix Instant and Apple iTunes? The film is not available on Netflix Instant, but it is available for rent through the Apple iTunes store.

In 1999, there were two films I could not wait to see. The first was Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. We all know how that embarrassing mess turned out. The second was Sleepy Hollow, a return to form for Tim Burton, who was looking for a box office success after the failure of Mars Attacks! and his failure to launch Superman. With Sleepy Hollow, Burton promised a return to the gothic quirky shit that he established his name with in such films as Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Nightmare Before Christmas (and Ed Wood to some degree). Sleepy Hollow also had the added bonus of reacquainting Burton with his frequent leading man, Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood). With a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, whose Seven was a sensational success, it seemed impossible for Sleepy Hollow to be anything short of phenomenal.

Sleepy Hollow is a very loose adaptation of Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The story takes place in 1799 in the village of Sleepy Hollow, which is located somewhere in upstate New York. Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, a New York City detective whose scientific deductive methods earn him scorn and ridicule by his peers. Crane’s idiosyncratic method eventually causes him to be banished to Sleepy Hollow to investigate three deaths. All three victims were incapacitated and their heads were taken. Upon arriving at the village, Ichabod is informed by the town’s elders that the victims were not killed by a man of flesh and blood, but actually by the Headless Horseman (Christopher Walken), an undead Hessian (German) mercenary from the American Revolutionary War. Initially, Ichabod refuses to believe such nonsense. Ichabod’s scientific mind refuses to believe in the notion of an undead headless horseman killing off villagers. Until he comes face to face with the Horseman.

Remember how at the end of every Scooby-Doo episode, Scooby and gang find out the ghoul or ghost or whatever has been chasing them is actually a disgruntled school janitor? That is essentially what we have in Sleepy Hollow. Once you remove the luscious production design and costumes and get past the star-studded performances, Sleepy Hollow is nothing but your typical whodunit murder mystery with a dash of the supernatural thrown in. This is not unusual for a Tim Burton film, especially his most recent ones. Even in his good films, Burton tends to heavily rely on style over substance. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker has unfortunately ditched the careful analysis that his two detective characters employed to solve the mystery in Seven, his first script, for a far more lazy approach in Sleepy Hollow.

For one, the film fails to establish Depp’s competence in being a detective. For example, the detective guide Depp uses for reference is nothing but a bunch of drawings with a few words jotted here and there. During most of the film, Depp seems to be in over his head in figuring anything out. Whatever clues Depp discovers are ones he seems to stumble upon by accident rather than figure out (e.g. the witch’s house, the Tree of the Dead). This leads to another issue, which is that Depp makes huge discoveries without an explanation as to how he made those discoveries. This happens repeatedly throughout the film and this is one of the most cardinal sins a screenwriter can make. For example, after finding a bunch of severed heads inside the Tree of the Dead, Depp concludes that the tree is a “gateway” between two worlds. He also deduces from a buried headless skeleton that the Headless Horseman takes his victims’ heads in order to restore his own head. Depp also mysteriously figures out that the Headless Horseman is controlled by another person. Andrew Kevin Walker handled this much better in Seven, where Morgan Freeman’s character meticulously studied every murder and connected one clue to another. The audience participated in Freeman’s thought-making process and regardless of whether or not Freeman used realistically accurate crime methods, what he did felt plausible and you believed in the character. Not so with Depp’s Ichabod Crane.

In addition, unlike in Seven, there is absolutely no tension in Sleepy Hollow and despite the fact that the Headless Horseman is offing villagers seemingly at random, there is also no sense that the stakes are high. One reason for this is the film’s slow pacing and lack of buildup. Much of the film’s slow pacing is due to the excessive exposition given by Ichabod Crane as he explains the various clues he’s discovered. However, the biggest reason I think is that none of Sleepy Hollow feels grounded enough in reality. There is such an overriding concern for style that the audience becomes disconnected with the story and the characters. Granted, when the Headless Horseman comes galloping to take his next victim, its staged very well, but you never get a sense of dread (NOTE: Paranormal Activity is a great example where this is done right; where you get a feeling of dread every time the ghost appears).

A further issue, albeit a smaller one, is how flat the comedy is in Sleepy Hollow. For some reason Burton and Depp thought that Ichabod Crane fainting whenever he sees something fantastical was hilarious. I think the last time anyone found this to be funny was during the silent era of films. Also, what did Ichabod’s aversion to blood contribute either to the story or his character? If it was intended to be funny, then again, it was not.

Clearly, Sleepy Hollow has many issues and here is another: not only is there zero chemistry between Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp, Ricci’s Madonna-esque attempt at an English accent is the funniest thing about this movie even though I’m sure it wasn’t intended to be funny. Watching Ricci and Depp get intimate felt way too creepy and I felt like I was watching child pornography. Depp simply looks much older than Ricci and that alone killed any hope of a romantic chemistry. Besides, the romantic plotline distracts from the main story and it was completely unnecessary. The romance feels shoehorned into the story and as I stated before, it feels awkward as it is.

Luckily for Burton and Depp, not is all lost for Sleepy Hollow. In fact, I don’t regard this as being Burton’s worst film. That distinction is reserved for his later films (e.g. Planet of the Apes, Sweeney Todd, and Alice in Wonderland). What Sleepy Hollow has going for it in spades is the sumptuous production design, for which it deservedly won an Academy Award for Production Designer Rick Heinrichs and Set Decorator Peter Young. I would actually recommend you turn off the sound and just watch Sleepy Hollow for its visuals. I absolutely dug the film’s Hammer Films homage by giving the nighttime exteriors a fake sound stage look. Sleepy Hollow’s fantastic look is also attributed to the great work done by DP Emmanuel Lubezki (Tree of Life, Great Expectations, Meet Joe Black, Y tu mama tambien, Children of Men, and the upcoming Gravity), who I consider one of Hollywood’s absolute best cinematographers. Burton was so impressed by Lubezki’s work on Great Expectations that he hired him on shoot Sleepy Hollow. This is no doubt an elegant looking movie and I would almost say its worth owning just for its look.

Lets also not forget the wonderful group of actors Burton managed to put together. Aside from Johnny Depp, Sleepy Hollow also features the talents of Christopher Lee (Hammer Films homage), Michael Gough (another Hammer Films homage and for which he came out of retirement at Burton’s urging), Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, and Christopher Walken as the Headless Horseman.

Sleepy Hollow was 1999’s second biggest disappointment behind Star Wars Episode I. The film feels like it was aware of its narrative deficiencies and so it covered up for it by wowing the audience with a whole lot of spectacle. I suppose it worked in some sense as Sleepy Hollow managed to generate approximately $206 million worldwide at the box office. Its frustrating to see a film like this squander such a great concept on such a mediocre screenplay (and to top this off, Danny Elfman wrote one of his most forgettable film scores in his career).