College Crunch

Full confession: some of these movies take place within 24 hours, not a typical day as you'd conceive it from sunrise to sunset. But that's a minor fudging of the line. The great thing about these movies is the way they tell great stories about wonderful characters and do it with a focus on one special day or night in their lives. It's a reminder that you don't have to cover 50 years in someone's life to tell a sweeping story or to feel like you know them as well as you do your own family. Sometimes, you just need a few hours or less. Here are some of the best films that take place over the course of a day. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it's a great place to start.

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off: John Hughes was big on telling stories that took place within one day — The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles also qualify — but there's something about Ferris Bueller's Day Off that puts it a cut above the rest. The story's not as dark or melodramatic as some of his other films, and it knows how to have a good time while also making you care about the people on screen. Plus how can you top the parade scene for sheer joy?
2. Glengarry Glen Ross: Taking place over the course of a rainy night and the next dreary morning, Glengarry Glen Ross is one of writer David Mamet's best screenplays. (The original play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, too.) Set in a real estate office, it's a brutal look at a group of ruthless salesmen desperate to sell some land and get ahead. One of them breaks into the office after hours to steal the much-prized Glengarry Highlands leads, an event that leads to the unraveling of the team. Fantastic performances all around (even Al Pacino reins it in a bit), plus a killer one-scene role by Alec Baldwin.
3. Dazed and Confused: Basically a Robert Altman film for the class of '76, Richard Linklater's debut film is a prime example of how to capture the time and feel of a place — in this case, the last day of school in a small Texas town in the 1970s — with a minimum of gimmicks. The plot is pretty loose, wandering as it does between the upperclassmen who haze the entering freshmen and the exploits of random groups of friends, but the film's more about atmosphere than anything. A great one for anyone who remembers high school as something to be survived.
4. Die Hard: Easily the worst Christmas Eve of all time. The original (and best) Die Hard finds John McClane foiling the plans of European terrorists while trying to stay alive long enough to reconcile with his wife. Great action, fun story, and holiday-themed ass-kicking. What more could you want?
5. Do the Right Thing: Spike Lee's 1989 exploration of race and violence is masterfully done — it creates a feeling of tension and dread that's almost palpable — and it all takes place on one blistering summer day in Bed-Stuy. Smart, controversial, and unforgettable.
6. Training Day: Training Day is worth praising just for the fact that it inspired the best Chappelle's Show sketch of all time, but it's also a fantastic thriller in its own right. Denzel Washington is amazing, playing against type as a corrupt and thuggish cop who knows no law but money. Ethan Hawke's training day becomes a battle to take down the bad guys on his own force without getting capped in the process.
7. Before Sunrise/Before Sunset: Another pair of films from Richard Linklater. These films each play out in a compressed amount of time: the first one over the course of one night, and the sequel during an afternoon that unfolds pretty much in real time. They're both sharply observed takes on love, from youthful infatuation to older longing, and it's also interesting to watch films separated by a decade that use that gap as part of the plot.
8. 25th Hour: From 2002, this Spike Lee film is another great New York story that's colored by everything from racial strife to the fallout of 9/11. Edward Norton is fantastic as Monty Brogan, a drug dealer getting his life in order before going to prison. The film includes a few flashbacks, which might technically violate the 24-hour rule, but come on. It's too good not to include.
9. Run Lola Run: A quick, enjoyable film that runs only 80 minutes, Run Lola Run imagines the lives of its characters in three 20-minute stretches that explore different possible outcomes for the same starting point. (It's like Sliding Doors with more gunplay.) Not as insightful as some of the others on this list, but the replay value is definitely there.
10. Wet Hot American Summer: Aside from the montage featuring an increasingly insane and drug-addled day trip to town, this one takes place over the course of the last day of summer camp in 1981. The brainchild of former Stella members David Wain and Michael Showalter, it's one of funniest and most absurd comedies of the past decade. I dare you not to fondle your sweaters afterward.
11. High Noon: One of the earlier films to unfold in real time, High Noon is an atypical Western that focuses on the morals of fighting wrong instead of just letting the chase scenes run wild. Conservatives and liberals each read something different into the film upon its release and in the decades after, but the bottom line is that it's just a gripping story.
12. Empire Records: A sweet if superficial memento from the mid-1990s alternative music era, Empire Records follows the predictably quirky gang of employees at a record store on the brink of bankruptcy as they plot to save the shop from a corporate takeover. Infinitely quotable and packing a pretty sweet soundtrack, it's one of those movies that works as comfort food on a Saturday afternoon.
13. Collateral: Tom Cruise is pretty great at playing casual psychopaths (real-world practice probably hasn't hurt), and Collateral features him as a hitman on a 12-hour run through Los Angeles killing a series of targets. He uses his cab driver (Jamie Foxx) as an unwilling partner. Beautifully shot and genuinely exciting.
14. 12 Angry Men: Adapted from the 1954 teleplay, this riveting 1957 drama unfolds within the confines of a jury deliberation room as 12 unnamed jurors argue over the reasonable doubt that's plaguing one of them (Henry Fonda). Sure, it plays a little loose with the legal system in terms of what would actually constitute a mistrial, but it's a movie. Watch it for the performances.
15. Clerks: "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" Writer-director Kevin Smith peaked with his first film, a hilarious and low-rent look at the lives of two store clerks (one works at a convenience store, the other at the adjacent video outlet) who spend the day killing time, playing rooftop hockey, and pontificating on the finer political points of Star Wars. It works as a hilarious series of vignettes as much as a real film. Totally quotable, too.