Director: Amy Heckerling
Written by: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus

Year / Country: 1982, USA
Running Time: 90 mins.

Adolescence is way too confusing. Hormones go haywire and temptations arise everywhere. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is about this foggy period. Like Dazed and Confused, it deals with teenagers discovering life: Two girls experimenting with sex (Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh), a surfer who is permanently stoned (Sean Penn) and a popular guy who has to work stupid fast food jobs (Judge Reinhold).

Along the way they make discoveries: One of the girls finds out that she wants romance rather than sex, a teacher turns out to be cooler than initially thought and it is possible to quit a stupid job. The film is written by Cameron Crowe, who was one time named as ‘spokesman for the post-baby boom generation’ because his first films focussed on this age group. His screenplay for Fast Times at Ridgemont High is based on his experiences at Clairemont High School in San Diego, where he went undercover as a student for a year.

There isn’t much of a story – just a bunch of kids hanging around a mall – but it is the characters that count. And those are a lovely bunch. Jennifer Jason Leigh is adorable as the young experimenting high school girl Stacy, Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli adds a new dimension to the classic stoner character and Robert Romanus is very smooth as the cool hustler Mike Damone. Too bad he never really broke through since he is very charismatic.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High will make you flash back to your own teenage years in no time. There are many great scenes – such as Reinhold’s masturbation scene, Romanus and Leigh’s sex scene and Penn’s stoner dream – that will stick with you for years to come. Best of all, the film has got a heart. A big one.

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Biography: Amy Heckerling (1954, New York) studied Film and TV at New York University. She got her breakthrough with Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982. Since then she has made a number of successful comedies, most notably Look Who’s Talking, which she thought up while she was pregnant, and Clueless.

Filmography: Getting It Over with (1977, short), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Johnny Dangerously (1984), European Vacation (1985), Fast Times (1986, TV episodes), Look Who’s Talking (1989), Look Who’s Talking Too (1990), Clueless (1995), Clueless (1996, TV episodes), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Loser (2000), The Office (2005, TV episode), I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)