Fast Times at Ridgemont High

[baumer]

Review it

[baumer]

have read many reviews in this forum by people that can only be young and uninformed, that claim that movies such as Drive Me Crazy, Here On Earth, 10 Things I Hate About You and such are the best films around that are about teenagers and highschool. That is not a stupid opinion, only an opinion of someone that has never bothered to rent those comedies from the section of the local video store that gathers dust. Films like the ones mentioned are squalid imitations produced and written by misguided souls that are doing their best to cash in on a genre that has been dead for years. And yet they succeed. And why is that? Because they know that a teen comedy will always have a market, no matter how poorly it is written because as long as you can write a basic plot and cast some recognizable faces in the lead role, your film is guaranteed to make back it's production cost times two. But if you want is to check out and admire the pioneers of the business, you have to go back to the Encyclopedia of the 80's and look for names like Hughes, Heckerling, Linson, Kouf, Boaz Davidson and so on. There you will find films with titles such as The Breakfast Club, Secret Admirer, The Wild Life, Mischief, Last American Virgin and Fasttimes At Ridgemont High. Disguising today's excuse for teen comedies as honest attempts to delve into the psyche of today's youth is nothing but chicanery and should be uncovered for what it really is. And that is a cheap ersatz for what 80's comedies were and for what they stood for. You may be able to fool some people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. To put Fasttimes and almost any number of todays teen based films in the same breath is almost blasphemous, but it has to be done here just to prove a point.Fasttimes is the ultimate highschool comedy that features everything from subtle observations like kids sniffing freshly photocopied paper to more overt gestures like teens and young sex. The films was written by a young Cameron Crowe, who has gone on to be famous with films like Say Anything and Jerry Maguire. But back in the early 80's he returned to highschool in cognito to observe teens and their rituals and the result was his book based on his studies. Some of the students were so angered at his film because they said that his characters were to much like the ones he knew and hung out with. And if that is true, can you imagine what it was like to know a guy like Jeff Spicolli? Here is one of the all time funniest characters that has now been imitated to the point of banality. Here is a guy that wants nothing more than to have sex, smoke some weed, drink some beer and squeak by in his World History class. Oh yea, and surfing is his passion. I don't think we were prepared for a character like Spicolli because I have never seen an imitation of him done quite right. He is the perfect caricature of the 80's surfer dude. As one of his classmates says, " This guys been stoned since the third grade. "If the Spicolli character is the comic genius of Fasttimes, the rest of the cast is the reality. There is a pallet of interesting characters played by young and energetic, soon to be famous stars that started their careers in this film. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Forrest Whitaker, Sean Penn and even lesser known faces like Anthony Edwards, Eric Stoltz and Nicolas Cage all started in this film. Look at where they are today.Fasttimes is the archetype of any film that wants to capitalize on the teen market. There is well thought out comedy, painstaking relationships, the rah-rah bravado of highschool sports, the essential prom night, sex, drugs, rock and roll and of course the excitement of working at the coolest place in the mall. I had a friend in highschool that thought just like Brad Hamiltion did. He thought that to be prestigious at our school, you had to drive a car and work at the cool mall at a cool clothing store. Fasttimes covers all that.This is one of the funniest yet most poignant films about highschool and growing up. If you think the Godfather is the Bible of all mafia movies, Halloween is the godfather of horror films and Raiders of the Lost Ark is the pioneer of action films, then you will understand that Fasttimes at Ridgemont High is THE original highschool flick. For those that think any film released in the late 90's or early 00's ( with the exception of American Pie ) is the best you can get, then please do yourself a favour, see this film. There is no contest. Every idea in todays films has been borrowed from the great ones from only a couple of decades ago. Look no further than this great movie. It is the one to watch.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Just finished watchign and I loved it!!!  Easily one best high school movies along with Dazed and Confused  & Perks of Being a Wall Flower. All the characters in this movie feel very real. This movie came out 8 years before I was born and it is relatable  and captures the experience high school well. 

First there is the character Jeff played brilliantly by Sean Penn. Jeff is the typical druggie student which every high school has. He is the student that is always out of it and has know idea what is going. He is a funny character and he lives in own world.  Next is the character of Stacy. She is the girl who is unexperienced with guys but is excited to find a guy who she can love and start a relationship. She struggles over sex and relationships. She has urges to have sex and is not afraid to act on those urges when the time comes. She is a great character and is more accurate how a high school female is then compared to how society views teen girls. Her older brother Brad. Is a great brother and willing to protect his sister. When he found she had abortion and he kept her secret and did push to find out who was the father. He respected her wishes and truly captured how a big brother can protect and love his sister. He going though hard times his senior year. He had it all a good job and the girl. But after loosing his job and his girlfriend his life goes down hill.  But in the end he get his justice. Brad is the guy who is shy around girls and like a certain girl but he doesn't know to do. He is the nice guy but who lacks confidences to have a relationship.  Even if a girl wants to be with him he gets to nervous and balls out. His friend Damone, is the guy who thinks he knows how to get a girl. He might know how to have sex with a girl but he is guy who lacks the ability to have a relationship. He is also over confident and a jerk. He thinks about himseslf and no one else. 

The movie hits all the right notes with its sharp dialog. The  drama and humor are fantastic. Cameron found a way to blend it nicely. His screenplay is amazing at capturing the students and teacher relationships.   It is great to see so many great actors in the film. One of few movies that I was sad when the credits came up since I was so sad that such a great movie.

Like what Baumer said that Cameron Crowe going back to high school to write about the students. Made this film work. 

5/5

Edited September 7, 2014 by Snoopy of Suburbia

[Maxmoser3]

This movie is just a lot of fun and just hilarious movie with a lot of funny scenes despite that abortion scene with brad's sister that was just ehh ok? But other than that scene I had a lot of fun with the characters especially Spicoli played by a younger Sean Penn and my favorite scene is probably when Spicoli and Jefferson's brother are driving around in his brother's Car and they destroy it(my brothers gonna shit my brother' gonna kill us, is he gonna shit or is he gonna kill us. First he's gonna shit then he's gonna kill us relax dude alright my dad is a TV repairman he's got a plenty of tools to fix it) and some others too. Overall very good movie,and deserves a very very high B+(89)