Me & the Bruce on movies

loosely-organized ruminations on this post.

Matt didn't think much of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Of the films he compares it to, I think FT is:

dunno, haven't seen Kids
better
better
loads better
worse but different
hardly comparable, but both are good
far better

I'd submit that some of this might be generational in the few years that set us apart. (same reason everyone just two years younger than me love that damn Goonies). I also may be cutting FT some slack for being a genre-definer, not a refiner. First off, Amy Heckerling directed FT from Crowe's screenplay, so blame her for how the end titles ended up. It was a first feature for both, and yes, it showed (though in Heckerling's case, the only notable improvement since is the wonderful Clueless). I hope you stuck around for the DVD commentary: Crowe and Heckerling are tremendously entertaining, and talk for a good 20 minutes after the film ends. Likewise, Crowe has a 15-20-minute preamble on the Say Anything dvd commentary.

I don't remember making the nudity comment (your comments aren't archived), but I agree. Jennifer Jason Leigh carries the film. Roger Ebert gave it a one-star review seemingly because he was crushing on Leigh and didn't like seeing her character abused. I don't think he ever publicly changed his position on this film, but he didn't mind seeing JJL put through the wringer in the 3.5-star Last Exit to Brooklyn. Anyway, I like it because there's enough levity to keep the proceedings from getting too afterschool special while attempting to be serious about actual teen problems (not this BS "my parents don't understand me" malaise of John Hughes): demeaning jobs, money problems, the feeling that everyone but you is getting laid. And it deromanticized the First Time, an experience that nine times out of 10 is lousy. There's only one movie I can think of with a more unpleasant consensual first time.

Breakfast Club is an utter embarrassment. The great shame of my generation is that this was a defining film. You may think this is just me being cranky, but I remember it ringing false even then -- the North Shore affluence of most of Hughes' movies didn't speak to me. I can't imagine what a modern 15-year-old would think of it. Ferris Bueller has a bit of that problem too. Parts may as well be set on Mars. And then there's the problem of Bueller himself: a manipulative little jackass. I like to think that Bueller grew up and became the civics teacher in Election. But I think he's actually George W. Bush.

American Pie and Porky's -- A line I just heard last week (Dave Kehr on Animal House, actually) sums up my feeling toward Porky's: "I probably laughed harder...than I ever have at a film I didn't really like." There are some great bits, but it's sunk by the supposed "friends'" cruelty to each other, and the wedged-in anti-bigotry message. American Pie was freed of that phony sense of social responsibility, and for once the women were given a little more to do than be doormats/receptacles. Still, it felt like deja vu all over again.

I don't see the ties to Animal House. There are the "where are they nows?," but American Graffiti did them first. A link to Better Off Dead is even more tenuous -- other than a scene in a fast-food restaurant and Vincent Schiavelli, there's hardly a connection. Well, I guess Curtis Armstrong is playing a Spicoli Lite (VERY lite)...