Genre Grandeur – Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Encore Review – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – 80’s Teen Sex Comedies, here’s a review of Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) by Me.

Thanks again to Christopher Cooper of Angelman’s Place for choosing this month’s genre.

Next month’s genre has been chosen by Allie of Often Off Topic and we will be reviewing our favorite British Comedies

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of April by sending them to funnyallie@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Allie!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

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“What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place ’cause it was bogus; so if we don’t get some cool rules ourselves – pronto – we’ll just be bogus too! Get it? ” – Jeff Spicoli

Number of Times Seen – No clue (numerous times on cable, video, DVD, 12 Feb 2015 and 28 Mar 2019)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – A look at the various students in a normal high school and how they get through their year while trying to constantly have fun before they graduate.

My Take on it – This is another film that I saw so many times as a kid in the 80’s that it has become one of my favorite films of the teen sex comedies genre.

They do an amazing job here giving us an iconoclasm of life of high schoolers in the early 80’s.

The characters are developed really well that despite the fact that this film has a slim 90+ minute run time, we still get a clear picture of what each of them wants and what they are willing to do in order to achieve and accomplish their goals.

This film is presented in such a way that even with such a short run time, we get a long glimpse at the life of teenagers at the time in a very poignant way.

The cast of this film is superb and it’s amazing to see how many of them who were virtually unknown when they made this film went on to have long careers in Hollywood.

The film doesn’t have a central character and that works quite well since they want to show us the various interweaving of the lives of these teens on a daily basis as they try to accomplish all they can before graduating school and entering the “real” world.

This movie is able to tackle so many teen issues of the day and present them in a coherent and plausible fashion.

The fact that they are able to do so with such a small run time is amazing and much credit should be given to director Amy Heckerling and Writer Cameron Crowe.

Bottom Line – Such a great film because it truly is a iconoclasm of high school in the 80’s. The various characters are all developed quite well and even though many may seem like stereotypes, we get an idea of who each and every one of these characters are and what they want to do.  This film is just 90 minutes long yet it is so poignant in so many ways because it allows the world to get a quick glimpse at the life of high schoolers in the early 80’s. The cast is superb and it’s hard to actually say that there is one lead here since there are so many interweaving stories that make up the overall plot. Many of the cast members would go on to have great careers in Hollywood even if they were mostly unknown when this film was made.  The issues that this film tackles over the course of its slim running time is quite amazing and much credits is sue to the director Heckerling and writer – Crowe for accomplishing such a great feat. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Near the beginning of the movie, right after Mr. Hand sends Spicoli to the front office for being late to class, Mr. Hand passes out the class schedule of quizzes. After the paper is passed out, the students put the page up to their noses and deeply inhale. This was a popular school ritual of the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s as photocopying machines were very expensive, so spirit duplicators were used. The spirit duplicators used a colored wax as the “ink” and a noxious solvent as a transfer agent to impress the ink on the paper. These solvents sometimes took a long time to dry, hence the students’ use of these solvents as a short-term high. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10) (no change from original review)

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