The first 80's movie I ever saw in theaters was "Beetlejuice".

Fast Times.

Revenge of the Nerds for me!!

I keep hearing it every time I see the thread title -

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ATDi49Hu4M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Can't embed but this song comes to mind when I think of Fast Times.

https://youtu.be/VUMTshUflTg

You may be able to see it through a different lens, but I never connected with or liked Fast Times.

Besides the fact that I was in high school in metropolitan KC, which had zero in common with the Sherman Oaks Galleria or life in the San Fernando Valley, none of the characters, IMO, were likable. Not only were they unlikeable, I couldn't relate to any of them, as their personalities and lifestyle choices were completely different than me and my friends as teenagers in Kansas.

Also, they seemed so much more mature than any of the kids I went to school with, which of course, was due to the fact that all of them, outside of Phoebe Cates (19 at the time), where into their 20's or well into their 20's (Forrest Whitaker was 26, Brian Backer and Robert Romanus 27 and Judge Reinhold 25). That maturity constantly took me out of the moment.

Also, it was too realistic and felt like a drama to me and not a comedy. Cameron Crowe, the young and excellent Rolling Stone writer, enrolled in a San Fernando Valley high school and the stories and characters are composites of those he met at the time. He adapted the book into the screenplay and had a large role in choosing the music for each scene (even though he's not listed as the Music Supervisor), which at times, eerily supported certain scenes.

Even though it was set a nearly a decade before I was in high school, Dazed and Confused was much, much closer to my experiences in junior high and high school.

I saw it this afternoon. It was fun. Although I was the only one in the theater.

It's an 80s classic for sure. But I alway thought the abrupt shifts in tone were strange. They go from the hilarious Spicoli stuff to the super serious Jennifer Jason Lee abortion stuff. Like they couldn't decide what they wanted 100%??

It was just too dark for me. Abortion, ticket scalping, drug use, football players being paid off, dating old guys at the mall, etc.

If those are the way things were in the Valley back in the 80's, I'm glad I didn't grow up there.

I'd be even more jaded and skeptical of people than I am now.

Happened in Kansas City as well.

Man, not in my junior high or high school

I was only in KC for my Junior and Senior year of high school. I knew a few girls that got abortions, I bought tickets from a scalper, a girl I knew dated some 21+ year old guy that worked at Fun Factory, and I knew a few people that did drugs. Plus the 2 idiots that were killed driving drunk over on Santa Fe trail.

Fast Times has a more serious side. It isn't just a frivolous teen comedy. (Not that there is anything wrong with frivolous teen comedies.)

If Fast Times only had the serious parts without the comedy, it would have been a heavy film and probably not commercially successful.

I didn't mind how they jumped around, but I can see the point.

I don't think they were trying to pretend that that was exactly what American high schools were like at the time. The characters were mostly stereotypes and a bit over the top at that. But I think you could find people similar to those stereotypes at many high schools. And high school wasn't all funny, Spicoli stuff. I thought the abortion stuff was treated seriously in an appropriate manner without making the film a downer.

I'll throw the movie Heathers out again. Dark but very funny.

It was a good role for Winona Ryder and it was a great role for Christian Slater.

Given the general freakout over school violence/guns at schools, I doubt you could get a Hollywood studio to make a film like that today...

"I love my dead gay son."