Within the sea of John Hughes' '80s oeuvre, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" would seem to be the least emotionally complicated film: High school kid and his friends blow off school, party in Chicago and foil a jerky school principal. It's like an episode of "The Simpsons" (with Ferris as Bart and Rooney as Homer, natch), except with less subtext.
Which is why turning this particular Matthew Broderick vehicle into a moody, coming-of-age drama via the magic of modern video editing (and the fine folks at New York Magazine's Vulture) is so effective.
You know the type - movies like "Igby Goes Down," "Rushmore" and the granddaddy of them all, "The Graduate," that offer up that fragile moment when a boy becomes a man, when the defiance of authority goes from childhood antic to expression of self. The funny thing is, there's very little editing trickery done, here. All it took to turn "Ferris" into that kind of flick was a change of music and voice-over tone. Who knew?
