From the crossroads of cultural and political commentary (his sofa), Slate associate editor John Swansburg fires off this analysis:
Did the
New York Times
host an impromptu screening of
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
yesterday? A little matinee to take everyone’s mind off
the Iseman firestorm
?
Stephen Holden’s review today of Charlie Bartlett makes an extended comparison between Anton Yelchin’s Bartlett and Matthew Broderick’s Bueller. It seems like a stretch— Charlie Bartlett is about a kid who achieves high-school popularity by dealing psychotropic drugs. Bueller achieved popularity by cutting class and making his keyboard approximate barfing sounds. Having not seen Charlie Bartlett , however, I’ll give Holden the benefit of the doubt.
But what was Alessandra Stanley thinking? Reviewing last night’s Democratic debate in a “TV Watch”
column
for the
Times
, Stanley wrote that “Mrs. Clinton looked like the Jennifer Grey character struggling to show up her favored brother in
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
.” Huh?
Ferris Bueller
is a classic, but it’s a 22-year-old classic. Has Stanley not seen anything in the last two decades, the most recent chunk of which she’s spent covering TV, that would have made for a slightly more
au courant
comparison?
Of course, my colleague Chris Beam compared Clinton last night to a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation , an equally second-term Reagan analogy. But, in Chris’s defense, Clinton really was doing her best Tasha Yar last night.
So why Jennifer Grey in Bueller ? It’s not a particularly memorable performance, though I suppose the comparison isn’t inapt — Jeannie Bueller is very jealous of what she sees as her brother’s undeserved popularity. And Stanley’s comparison did keep me reading to see whether there would be another I Love the 80s gem. I was holding out hope that she might compare Obama to Deon Richmond , who played Rudy Huxtable’s smug yet lovable friend Kenny on The Cosby Show . No such luck.
Trailhead readers: What tertiary characters from 1980s popular culture were you reminded of during the debate last night? Am I the only one who thinks about Rick Astley whenever I see John King? Something about the hair.
