[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

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.

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%??