Polly Augusta Noonan Movies
Teenaged Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a legend in his own time thanks to his uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make one last grand duck-out before graduation, Ferris calls in sick, "borrows" a Ferrari, and embarks on a one-day bacchanal through the streets of Chicago. Dogging Ferris' trail at every turn is high-school principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), determined to catch Bueller in the act of class-cutting. Writer/director John Hughes once again tries to wed satire, slapstick, and social commentary, as Ferris Bueller's Day Off starts like a house afire and goes on to make "serious" points about status-seeking and casual parental cruelties. It brightens up considerably in the last few moments, when Ferris' tattletale sister (Jennifer Grey) decides to align herself with her merry prankster sibling. A huge moneymaker, Ferris Bueller's Day Off eventually spawned a TV sitcom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, (more)
Corey Haim plays 13-year-old Lucas, a bespectacled, bookish type who attracts school bullies like a magnet. Lucas befriends 16-year-old Kerri Green; she wants to be "just friends," he'd like a more meaningful relationship. The boy introduces the girl to a world of intellectual pursuits of which she'd been previously unaware. She enjoys the attention, but is physically attracted to football jock Charlie Sheen, and becomes a cheerleader to be nearer to the young athlete. Lucas feels shut out once more, but is comforted to learn that Sheen is not just one more bully but a sensitive kid who sticks up for Lucas when the younger boy is being picked on. Still hoping to impress Kerri, Lucas tries out for the football team himself, threatening legal action when the coach tries to turn him down. This original and innovative teen-oriented film threatens to come to a hackneyed "big touchdown" climax. Instead, Lucas winds up in the hospital after being injured in a game, which earns him the respect of the rest of the team. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corey Haim, Kerri Green, (more)
In this darkly comic film noir from writer/director David Atkins, Steve Martin revisits dentistry -- an occupation he'd explored 15 years prior, in the camp musical Little Shop of Horrors. Novocaine casts Martin as a much more mild-mannered D.D.S., Dr. Frank Sangster. Engaged to a prim and delicate hygienist, Jean (Laura Dern), Sangster leads a placid, upper-middle class existence, save for the occasional visit from his deadbeat artist brother Harlan (Elias Koteas). But Sangster finds his life turned inside out from the moment the alluring Susan (Helena Bonham Carter) plops down in his reclining vinyl chair: Complaining about her molars, she's really more interested in the refrigerator of narcotics the good dentist keeps on hand for his patients in pain. Once they manage to get Sangster's guard down, Susan and her brother (Scott Caan) rob him blind -- and worse yet, frame him for the theft. When a dead body turns up in Sangster's sleek suburban home, he finds that clearing his name will be a difficult proposition indeed. Novocaine marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Atkins, who first made his mark with the script for Emir Kusturica's oddball cult favorite Arizona Dream (1993). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, (more)
