"Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" When John Hughes died last August, anyone who grew up during the 1980s—as well as quite a few of us who didn't grow up until later—died a little with him. More than any other filmmaker of the period, Hughes captured the emotionally charged messiness of adolescence and growing up in a way that spoke directly to young audiences, almost as if to say: "I know what you're going through. It's okay to feel this way." Three films he directed—Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off—and a fouth he wrote—Pretty in Pink—are all considered classics of the genre, and outdoor cinemas around the country have been paying tribute to the filmmaker this summer with screenings of many of them. Ferris Buller is far and away the most optimistic and carefree of the quartet: trading in the angst of Hughes's other mid-80s output, it is an ode to freedom and joie de vivre, a celebration of what it means to be young. With fantastic performances from Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck, as well as Jeffrey Jones as Bueller's beleagured principal ("I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind"), Ferris Bueller remains relevant to young people—not to mention great fun—more than two decades after Ferris first cut class.

The Australian, 13 January 2010