In Contention

Tag: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

  • Jason Reitman guest-programs the New Beverly

    Jason Reitman at the 2010 Golden Globe AwardsGranted, this is pretty LA-centric, but beginning tonight, “Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman will be guest-programming three days of screenings at the Quentin Tarantino-owned New Beverly theater.  Tonight’s double feature is “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” at 7:30 (also showing tomorrow at 3:20 and 7:30) and “Election” at 9:30 (also showing tomorrow at 5:25 and 9:30).

    Sunday, February 21 brings “Shampoo” at 6:30 (also Monday at 7:30) and “Boogie Nights” at 8:45 (also Monday at 9:45).  I’ll probably check out the former, as, believe it or not, I’ve never seen it.

    The festivities conclude Tuesday, February 23 with “Breaking Away” at 7:30 and “Bottle Rocket” at 9:45, the only screenings of each.  Again, I may go check out the former, because I’ve never seen it.

    For more info, check out the New Beverly’s official website.  Meanwhile, for further reading, Anthony Breznican recently sat down with Reitman and father Ivan at USA Today.

  • The ‘real’ Ferris Bueller mourns John Hughes

    Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day OffIf anything good can be said to have from such a sad event, the premature passing of John Hughes has at least inspired an unusually high standard of obituary-writing. The personal connection still felt by an entire generation with his films has manifested itself in a number of heartfelt, idiosyncratic tributes from a wide range of voices.

    As someone too young to have experienced the Hughes teen phenomenon first-hand — I was in diapers when he made his directing debut with “Sixteen Candles” — I’ve gained a lot of understanding this week as to why his work means so much to so many, and why that makes him an important filmmaker. While I’ve enjoyed several of his films, I’m looking forward to revisiting them from this perspective.

    Meanwhile, the most interesting tribute I’ve read yet comes from an unlikely source: Washington lawyer Edward McNally, who grew up and attended high school with Hughes, and is rumored to be the inspiration for Hughes most beloved creation, Ferris Bueller.

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  • R.I.P. John Hughes

    Stolen from us, a true staple of the 1980s cinema, “Mr. Mom,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Weird Science,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Home Alone,” the great “Christmas Vacation” and, of course, a personal favorite I’ll defend to the ends of the earth,” “The Breakfast Club.”  Dead at 59 from a sudden heart attack.

    Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us – in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.

    Hughes got an entire generation.  That’s an artistic commodity, no matter how you slice it.  He will be missed.

  • Movie stingers: do they work?

    Columbia Pictures\' Hancock

    If you saw “Hancock” over the weekend, you probably noticed a brief scene in the middle of the closing credits sequence featuring Mike Epps and meant as a funny punch for your theater exiting pleasure.

    It got me thinking about inter- and post-credit sequences — called “stingers” — and whether they ought to be eliminated altogether.  I ask this despite a history that includes a precious few great examples in films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and perhaps extending way back to the point-and-shoot moment of “The Great Train Robbery” that sent audiences screaming out of nickelodeons in 1903.

    Most of the time, these moments are random, useless and nothing more than a send-off treat (like in “Hancock”).  Other times, they might be an “Easter egg” for those who know to stick around, like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury scene at the end of “Iron Man.” (There are also stingers after the credits of “WALL-E” and “Kung Fu Panda” this year.)

    More often, however, they have the potential to leave viewers who weren’t aware somewhat burned.  Or otherwise irritated — like Eric Snider of Cinematical, who dug into this issue in May.

    The question actually brings up another point, which is, are the closing credits of a film a part of the greater artistic whole?  Plenty of opening credit sequences provide direct commentary on a film and could therefore be argued part and parcel of the piece.  But with few exceptions, closing credits are a tacked-on necessity that even those featured in the roll wouldn’t consider any part of a directorial vision or collective filmmaking result — even if they are beautiful or interesting (i.e. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”).

    Then again, used to the right artistic effect, a subtle stinger might actually add to the overall canvas of a film.  Such is the case, I thnk, with the sound of children’s laughter after the credits of “Children of Men.”

    Typically, the existence of stingers just annoys me.  I’m more at ease with the inter-credits stuff.  As I was leaving “Hancock,” the Mike Epps scene kicked in and we all stopped and watch — har, har — off we go.  Fine, fair enough.  But if I miss something I realy want to see (like in “Iron Man”), it’s quite irritating.

    That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the scenes, however.  And I do have a few favorites.

    My top 5 movie stingers of all time after the jump! (spoilers obviously involved)

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