Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) Movie Review

You’re blazing with your friends, ordered some pizza, trying to decide on an easy-to-watch movie material, you refuse to watch Pineapple Express for the 5th time, well, look no further. Fast Times At Ridgemont High is a classic. This American teenage super cheesy movie will accompany your pizza splendidly.

Put yourself into a time machine traveling back to the 80’s and enter a white middle-class high school culture of LA. Then imagine being around all types of characters, the all-knowing cool Damone (Robert Romanus) who scalps tickets for an income, not as cool as Matthew McConaughey in “Dazed and Confused”, but definitely earning the lady-magnet status.

“Rat” (Brian Backer) is your everyday nice/shy guy that has romantic trouble with his beloved Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Stacy, of course, has a best friend Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates) who identifies herself as more sexually experienced and gives all kinds of sex advice to her friend. Stacy has a brother, “Brad” (Judge Reinhold) who constantly works at fast food joints or convenience stores.

And last but not least, our everyday stoner hero, Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn). His hobbies include surfing, chillin’ in school, chillin’ outside of school and of course hotboxing VW vans with presumably dank weed. An impeccable performance by Sean Penn which exudes the aura of a ten-guy straight outta’ Dogtown. During the cast, Sean Penn, as systematic as he is, only allowed himself to be addressed as Spicoli to help his mental transformation into a classic, and cliché 420 character.

An interesting fact worth mentioning, in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, the oscar winning Forest Whitaker makes his first appearance in featured films as an enraged high school football star Charles Jefferson. He starts his career by stepping outside of the car and saying to Damone “Don’t fuck with it” ... gnarly.

THE PLOT

I want you to be in the right mindset to understand the plot, here it goes: The US, west coast, teenagers, romance, sex, movie made in the 80’s about the 80’s, modest nudity, high school endeavours, ganja, middle-class kids, minimal amount of real issues, and of course young Sean Penn. OK, let’s begin.

Linda and Stacy work at a pizza restaurant, where they discuss dating and sex. An attractive fellow comes in, asks Stacy out for a date, and with a minimal amount of conversing, she loses her virginity. Rat, the shy guy, is in love with Stacy and needs his best friend Damone to teach him how to gather confidence to approach her. Rat gets Linda's number, they go on a date, she invites him to her place but he couldn’t go through with the sex. Stacy feels insecure and goes for Rat's friend Damone. They go back to her place and have 5-second sex. Damon feels guilty for betraying his friend, but everything works out in the end because Rat gets Stacy.
Spicoli stands on the sidelines of the plot by fantastically contributing with his cliché stoner personage. Brad is constantly encountering humiliating events, but keeps up his chilled composure, and of course Linda removes her red top which stands paramount in the history of American feature films.

STONER MOVIE CONCLUSIONS

Does the movie rise up to the challenge of being a solid and cheesy 80’s high school flick? Definitely. Not enough partying, man. There is a lot of romance and everyday endeavors, but almost all partying has been left out, although Spicoli climbs up on stage and goes mental, great stuff. The main disappointment? Not enough of Spicoli! If the movie would be centered around his character, the movie rating would be much higher, just like Spicoli.

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