Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

dir Amy Heckerling

When I was a teen, I was in this long form improv class where we were studying how to improvise 80s teen movies a la John Hughes and Cameron Crowe. Our weekly homework was basically to watch as many 80s teen movies as possible. This was still the time of dvds, so I thought I really lucked out when I found a value pack at Target that included Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I never understood why they included this one instead of like The Breakfast Club. For the record, I HATE The Breakfast Club! But you would think they’d want to take advantage of all three films being Molly Ringwald and John Hughes collabs.

Fast Times is so much better than The Breakfast Club. It’s not necessarily a great film. I have no clue whether or not I want to vouch for it “holding up over time” or whatever because we all know the 80s were a lil nasty, but there are some undeniably great elements working here.

Everything else about Sean Penn aside, Jeff Spicoli is seriously the best character. I’m sorry. I’m on his side in the battle to eat in class. Walking in with a bagel tucked into the waistband is so diabolical. Do they still make dudes like this or did they go extinct? I seriously haven’t heard a voice like that in at least a decade. Long live stoner bros, surfer bros, and the overlap between the two.

Love the storyline with Stacy, Rat, and Mike. For some reason my dad is obsessed with talking about the scene where Mike is smooth talking the Debbie Harry cardboard cutout. I get it. It’s a good scene.

I love Linda’s obsession with being mature, especially her breakup letter to her fiancé. Talking about him finding someone more mature, her being the bigger person and him being childlike. So real. Unfortunately I was totally this 16 year old.

Too much pool action, in my opinion, but that’s what the world was like back then. At some point people stopped having backyard pools. Even rich people aren’t willing to take on the maintenance anymore.  But in 1982, swimming was like the optimal activity for flirting. I feel like in some sick way, the late 00s-early 10s were a huge cultural repeat of the 80s. My world growing up looked so close to this, but at this point it just looks impossibly retro. At risk of sounding like an old man, I don’t know if kids are doing this stuff anymore! Are they going to the malls with friends after school? Going swimming at their friend’s houses spontaneously? I definitely don’t think they’d be able to get fired-and-hired by 3 jobs in the span of 7 months like Brad can pull off in this film. It really sucks that we’re back to a lot of the Reagan-era politics without any of the stuff that made the 80s cool. Ok. I’ll shut up now.