fatvegan

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a fun film. It's meant to have been one of the first teen comedies, which speaks against it, but it was both a) much less funny than modern teen comedies, and b) much better. Silliness might still explain a lot of the plot line, but it was meaningful silliness and with believably silly teens. There was more nudity and less sexual obsession. The film didn't have a cynical or naive agenda about presenting sex as something or other. Sex in most teen films feels like a toy, which probably isn't surprising because actual sex for lots of teenagers might not be that fun or funny. To make sex amusing you need to eliminate emotional hypochondriacs (or just make fun of them) and stuff the cast with a bunch of hormone driven men and hopefully women (although we'll make fun of the women too).

There wasn't even any alcohol in this film. I miss the days when teenagers had brains. Films like American Pie tend to describe a teen culture to us, even if it isn't representative. Old movies remind you that there wasn't always just that one, slutty teen comedy way of doing teen-ness.