It's all pretty much by the book, and in this case they needed a funnier one.
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According to the documentary that comes with the film, Universal Studios were so sure in 1982 that "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was going to fail, they only released it in the Western United States. They refused to spend money to distribute and advertise it on the East Coast. Of course, it was a smash hit. Curiously, the studio had made the same mistake about "American Graffiti" a decade before. Now, both films are available on special-edition DVDs. But there the similarities end. "American Graffiti" went on to become a cinematic classic--humorous, poignant, insightful, and honest. "Fast Times" is largely prosaic, crude, stereotyped, and pointless. It is rated R for sex, nudity, and profane language.
The film was written by Cameron Crowe, who in 1979 went back to high school undercover to write a book and subsequently a screenplay about high school life. He might have saved himself the trouble and merely watched "Porky's," which opened just prior to "Fast Times." The same vacuous characters abound. OK, I know what you're thinking. You knew people in high school exactly like the ones in "Fast Times." Maybe you did. At least that's what Crowe wants you to think. Certainly, all of the characters in the movie are partly true-to-life. But they're caricatures, exaggerations of real human beings.
Now, don't get me wrong, comedy mostly deals in caricature; but at about the three-quarters mark this movie turns very serious, and its sudden shift is difficult to accept after so much overstatement. Take, for instance, the kids. Every one of them is beautiful. Every young man is handsome; every young woman is gorgeous. There isn't an ordinary-looking person among them.
Worse, except for two token blacks, they are all white and middle class, even though this is supposed to be Los Angeles in the early eighties. No Hispanics, no Asians, no rich, no poor. And the buildings: On the outside they appear to be the genuine article, but on the inside every classroom is gleaming bright, the desktops spotless, lockers shiny new, hallways clean and glossy; not a candy wrapper or empty Coke can in sight! And need I mention that parents are never seen in this story, as though they simply didn't exist, and that the only teachers represented are geeks? (Who still wear neckties, by the way, even though California teachers had given them up years before.) No student cracks a book, college is never mentioned, and while pot is used as a comic peripheral item, beer, the brew of choice then and now among teenagers, is nowhere to be found.
"Fast Times" was a first-time effort by director Amy Heckerling, who would hit a high-water mark in 1995 with a much better parody of the teen scene, "Clueless." But in "Fast Times" she had to indulge the fatuous characters of Crowe's script, all of whom think only of sex, cars, and cheating on tests, in approximately that order.
The main character is Stacy Hamilton, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She is naive, innocent, fifteen, and ready for her first sexual experience. Once she makes it, she sets her eyes on every boy in school. Her best friend is Linda Barrett, a sexually vivacious older mentor played by Phoebe Cates. Ms. Cates's only responsibility is to look good in a bikini, and out of one. However, the real star of the show is forever-stoned Jeff Spicoli ("Hey, bud, let's party!"), played to perfection by Sean Penn. This character would never have gotten through a school day as high and smelling of pot as portrayed in the film, but his winning smile and totally lovable attitude are so disarming we don't care how unbelievable he is. In spite of Penn's going on to become one of Hollywood's finest and most versatile actors, his role as Spicoli would continue to haunt him for years to come. I'm not sure he has completely shaken the persona to this day.
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[release]3513[/release]