Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Imaginative student Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) pretends to be ill so that he can skip high school. He spends the day with his best friend and girlfriend instead, despite his sister (Jennifer Grey) and the Dean of Students (Jeffrey Jones) catching onto his elaborate range of tricks and deceptions to make them believe he’s still at home in bed. 

This is the best of the John Hughes teen films, probably because it’s much funnier than the others. But I find it fascinating that even his comedy film has to have some serious “self-discovery” drama. This is played out as Ferris’s best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) learns to face up to his fears after trashing his father’s sports car. 

The fourth-wall device works well – especially since it’s only Ferris, the narrator, who talks to camera. 

The music is prominent, as always. You get songs by Yello, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Big Audio Dynamite. There’s also an especially memorable sequence in which Bueller mines "Twist and Shout" by The Beatles from a carnival float. 

Like all Hughes’ films, adults are represented as one-dimensional authority figures to be scorned. And like The Breakfast Club, it mourns the passing of youth as the kids simultaneously want to join the adult world yet view that world with mistrust and contempt.