Directed by Amy Heckerling
Expectations: Moderate.
It could just be my age, but Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a transcendent experience. It would seem that anyone who lived through the ’80s would have already seen this one, but I was too young to catch it initially, and my parents were just about 30 when this came out, so they were perhaps too old for its charms. In any case, I never saw it growing up, and I’ve always kind of indirectly avoided it because of its reputation. I figured there was no way for it to live up to the hype, similar to my experience watching Valley Girl for the first time a couple of years ago.
But lo and behold, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a film with strength enough to withstand the test of time. What sets it apart from other high school movies, a genre I generally don’t care one way or the other for, is that it is timeless yet also expertly evocative of the time it was made. I was born in 1981, so I don’t remember the early ’80s, but even still the film dredged up all kinds of nostalgic thoughts and feelings of my youth. But you can’t simply hang four stars on nostalgia alone, and that’s where the timeless part comes in.
The music keeps the pace rolling ever onward, right from the get-go. I imagine your experience would be different if you didn’t care for ’70s and ’80s rock, but if you don’t care for ’70s and ’80s rock music you’re truly missing out. Even though Cameron Crowe only wrote this one, his stamp and his focus on music is undeniably on it throughout. The music is not just music to bridge the dialogue scenes, it is woven into the fabric of the screenplay and the character’s lives on-screen. It is its own character in the film, just as it is in the lives of many kids in high school. Outside of movies, music was always my quick escape, my refuge from the bullshit that everyone seemed to be slingin’ my way. Perhaps that’s why many of Crowe’s films resonate so well with me.
Amy Heckerling’s expertly made Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a high school movie, but it’s not just any high school movie. It’s one of the defining films of the genre and rarely have I ever seen a film capture the feeling of going to high school so well. I didn’t go to high school until the ’90s, but Fast Times at Ridgemont High brought me right back to those hallowed, damnable halls. I loved every minute of it.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a part of the 2013 Blind Spot Series where I see one movie a month that I feel I should’ve seen a long time ago. It’s all the brainchild of Ryan McNeil over at The Matinee, one of the web’s premiere film blogs. Head over there tomorrow where he’ll have a post of his own for the series, as well as links to all the other people taking part in the series.