20 Essential Coming Of Age Movies That Changed Your Life

5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

If there's a coming-of-age movie which best sums up the teenagers' defiance of authority figures then Ferris Bueller's Day Off is without a doubt a contender - Bueller's (Matthew Broderick) breaking of the fourth wall as he explains to the audience his motivation and book of tricks for avoiding his family and teachers as he skives off school is a stroke of genius which makes the audience feel complicit in his exploits, cheering him on from the comfort of our seats. We've already seen how John Hughes helped to define the 80s Hollywood coming-of-age movie with The Breakfast Club, but Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a progression of the genre to a whole new level. As much a celebration of the city of Chicago as it is of the free-spirited nature, few films are as eminently watchable, leaving a warm and contented afterglow once the credits have rolled. As an aside, it's worth watching Matthew Broderick in Election after Ferris Bueller's Day off - it's as if Bueller has succumbed to the system he despised and found himself battered down by it into submission, making for a wonderfully contrasting double bill.