I Was Wrong About Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Reconsidering Stacy, Dimone, and Mr. Hand
When I was a senior in high school, Cameron Crowe’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High captured the zeitgeist of mall culture, fast food jobs, burnouts, and everything from the waxing of Cheap Trick to the waning of Blue Öyster Cult. I hadn’t watched it for a few decades so when I came across it recently on Netflix, I gave it a go.
Note: This post contains abundant spoilers for this four-decade-old flick.
If you’re a Gen Xer with fond memories of Fast Times, don’t expect to enjoy it with your teens. It features full-frontal nudity, awkward teen sex, statutory rape, a humiliating masturbation scene, and an abortion. You and your offspring will be hiding from each other between the couch cushions before the final credits roll. There are far less painful ways to introduce them to Moving in Stereo than the slomo footage of Phoebe Cates doffing her red bikini top.
But I’m not here to give parenting advice. I’m here to reflect on how I misunderstood some of the main characters when I first saw Fast Times in 1982. These are the things I got all wrong.
