Everyone has that feeling. The day, complete with sunshine and blue skies, urges us to take the day off from work, from school, from whatever our obligations might be. Usually, we stuff that urge in our briefcase with our sack lunch and papers, and we head off to another day of the mundane.

Ferris Bueller isn’t like us, which makes him all the more like us. He’s a high school student who can’t see wasting a gorgeous day taking a test on European socialism, so he ditches school… for the ninth time this semester. And he has the advantages, so who can blame him?

For Ferris (Matthew Broderick, never better) that means taking a trip in a cool car with girlfriend Sloane (foxy Mia Sara, never heard from afterwards) and neurotic best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck, never composed and always funny) to nearby Chicago for a day of fun and, later, reflection. Hot on their tail is Ferris’s nemesis, Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), a school administrator convinced that Ferris’s antics will undermine the entire student populace.

Jones nearly steals the movie as a man so blindsided by work and his own importance that he allows a 16-year-old to rule his life. Every aspect of his performance, the faux tough guy act, his easily flappable manner, serves as a master class on how to play the buffoon. Jones also saves the movie because he makes you root for Ferris from start to finish. Meanwhile, the boy’s parents (Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett) are oblivious and dumb as a bag of rock salt. You wonder if Ferris has ever seen his school. Director/writer John Hughes portrays authority figures as gullible or inept, a trend that Ferris and Cameron happily exploit.

This imbalance leads to an array of memorable scenes: Ferris on a parade float lip synching along to “Twist and Shout” with his dad nearby, Cameron and Ferris’s phone scam to get Sloane out of school, Edie McClurg’s daft secretary unearthing a forest of pencils from her hair. Just going to the movie’s “memorable quotes” page on the IMDB unearths a bounty of great lines, which leads to a key question: Why isn’t John Hughes writing comedies? Imagine how much funnier missed high concept opportunities like Wedding Crashers and School of Rock would have been if Hughes had been behind the keyboard? He’s the king of the home-run comedy line, a talent that is on full display here. Pardon my French, but I’m right.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is very funny, though that’s not the main reason it’s relevant 20 years later. Hughes plays to our workaday souls’ fantasies, without making us feel excluded or dumb. He urges us to follow the young hero’s example and to enjoy life a little bit, even if it moves “pretty fast.” Hughes and Broderick, in capturing the unlocked potential of a perfect day, capture a feeling that lasts far longer and feels so good.

The DVD and Blu-ray editions include some vintage footage from the set, a retrospective collection of interviews, and a featurette on Ben Stein, who rose to fame with his tiny role in this film.