9 Ways Paper Towns Is Basically a Modern John Hughes Movie

Let's begin with the obvious. The main characters in Paper Towns are all high school students. They're seniors in those tender weeks leading up to graduation, and a portion of the movie even takes place on school grounds. This is Hughes 101; The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (basically all of Hughes's most celebrated films) revolve around high-school-aged characters.