Nostalgia at ‘Ridgemont High’
Nostalgia is a curious thing, especially when it comes to art. What can seem so fresh and exciting can wilt into indifference or even scorn in only a few short years. It is impossible to predict what films/TV series/books/bands/albums will stand our personal tests of time and which will be regulated to the trash heap of ‘yikes, I actually liked this?’
In the best case scenarios, nostalgia will bring back warm, fuzzy memories, even if the work in question doesn’t quite hit those same highs it did the first time around. This past weekend, I revisited Fast Times at Ridgemont High, one of those quintessential ’80s teen comedies. It had been ten years or so since I first watched it, and most of my memories of the film could be boiled down to three key moments:
- Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) calling his US history teacher, Mr. Hand (Ray Walstone) a dick.
- Linda Barrett (Pheobe Cates)and her iconic topless pool scene.
- Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) practicing fellatio techniques with carrots in the lunchroom.
Watching this film for a second time, I was struck by how relatively tame it is in terms of raunchiness. For a film the American critic Roger Ebert once called a ‘scuz-pit,’ it’s surprisingly sweet and thoughtful in how it sees it’s characters. The screenplay was written by Cameron Crowe, he of Say Anything and Almost Famous fame, adapted from his own book, and while Fast Times at Ridgemont High does engage in some of the sex comedy tropes made popular by films like National Lampoon’s Animal House, it’s certainly not mean-spirited like Porky’s or most other 80s teen sex comedies. Fast Times is far more interested in who the characters are and how they navigate the myriad fears and hopes of adolescence.
It helps that the film has such a talented young cast. It’s always a treat to see respected, acclaimed actors in early roles, and Penn and Leigh don’t disappoint here. In a genre that never put a ton of emphasis on actorly abilities (nice if it happened, but certainly not a requirement most of the time), Penn and Leigh, along with supporting actors like Cates, are legitimately good. Penn takes the stoner archetype and gives Spicoli a spaced out quality that is surprisingly nuanced. Similarly, Leigh, one of the great underrated actresses of her generation (how she has not received an Oscar nomination or win by now is beyond me), gives Stacy an winsome curiosity that balances out the cruder moments. Her Stacy may be naive, but she’s far from stupid, beautifully illustrated in a painful scene (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers) towards the end of the film.
With such appealing performances from a talented cast, it’s a shame the film doesn’t give them more to do. It’s a short feature (only 90 mins or so) and the episodic feel of the screenplay left me wondering what it would have been like as an HBO miniseries. The tone shifts between raunch and sweetness are uneasy (Crowe’s heart clearly lies more on the ‘sweetness’ side), but thankfully, the actors make it work.
As for whether it passes the nostalgia test, it does. It may not have made me laugh like it did the first time I saw it, but I had a newfound appreciation for the acting and the simple fact it’s a teen film that is genuinely interested in what it means to be a teenager. It may lack the cynical bite of teen films like Heathers or Election (both classics, in my opinion), but it’s pleasant enough and ultimately that’s what makes it work.
