Stand by Me (1986)

When the friends hear about a dead body deep in the woods, they enlist pals Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) and embark upon a two-day hiking trip to find it. Director Rob Reiner keeps most of the focus on the four friends, developing a realistic (profanity-filled) relationship between them. Their conversation drifts from the matters at hand to things like PEZ and stories of pie-eating contests (the movie has one of the best vomiting scenes ever filmed).

Reiner deftly switches from comedy to poignancy, as when Gordie spies a deer in the early morning light and decides to keep the moment all to himself. Kiefer Sutherland plays an older bully who also seeks the body, John Cusack appears in flashback as Gordie's brother, and Richard Dreyfuss narrates as the grown-up Gordie, now a writer.