Ferris…

I idolised Ferris as a kid, the movie’s never been properly replicated, nobody would dare. But through an adult lens, he’s a giant ass. Cameron’s clearly neurodivergent but he needs someone to help him appreciate life more. Ferris is still an ass. I’m highly neurotic myself, I still wouldn’t steal a car, go on a joyride, crash it and still feel like my dad will be “okay” about it.

I think I loved the whole vibe of this film, I was usually watching it on a day off from school or when I had the house to myself. There’s a degree of almost magical realism to how he can’t be caught even in the most absurd circumstances, you feel he has that level of trickster god (someone said the same on YouTube) who can bend everyone to his will. Cameron’s the only one who “suffers” for the supposed greater good of growing some balls. But people don’t credit Hughes enough for tapping into the whole Gen X ennui of the time, I wasn’t a teen until the mid 90s however, but as an older millennial I was already affected by that same sense of directionless and pointlessness that could only lead to living day by day. It had to be absurdist or else it’d make no actual sense. Rooney assumes a kid on a day off will do kid shit. Ferris does high end, expensive shit supposedly with an infinite money glitch. You kinda root for Genie to catch him, Jennifer Gray understood the assignment, you can’t recast this film with a modern cast, get bent. But anyone who’s out to stop Ferris is thwarted, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose can’t exist without this movie. Hell, this was also Charlie Sheen’s most convincing role to date. Matthew Broderick should avoid ever doing any sequels, it was lightning in a bottle, everything else pales in comparison. 

The music was actually a huge thing for me, especially the “museum scene”. I didn’t know this was an instrumental version of a Smiths song Hughes also played in Pretty in Pink. I don’t think you can find it on iTunes, only the one with lyrics, but I found it somewhere on Acquisition (Mac’s answer to Napster/Limewire) back in the day. I was still using that up until 2005. Other stuff on the soundtrack I did find but I was obsessed with some of the score, stuff you can’t find, I still have the tape I recorded certain scenes onto, so when I could put that shit on my iPod, that was the best. If I’d been able to put the movie on my iPod back then, and I could’ve carried it around as a kid, I think I would’ve put up with a lot of shit.

Anyway, I don’t have much to say about this, nothing profound. Ferris isn’t even intelligent, but he sounds philosophical to a teenager so that’s enough. Adults will say he grew up a loser but you can’t lose that level of cool even when you grow up.