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Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Amy Heckerling hasn't done jack for me lately, but in the summer of 1982 her dead-on examination of teen libidinal meltdowns scored in more ways than one. Check it: Not only do we get the painfully honest deflowering of Jennifer Jason Leigh's desperate-to-be-loved proto-virgin Stacy by ticket-scalping weaselboy Mike Damone (Robert Romanus), but we're also treated to Stacy's ginchy older brother Brad (Judge Reinhold) guiding the salmon upstream while mentally disrobing teen-queen Phoebe Cates (who -- haw! -- promptly walks in on him). Heckerling's genius lies in her refusal to bow to the Hollywood teen-sex norm -- the coitus here is nothing short of depressing, just as it so often is in first-timer reality. Leigh and Romanus' frenzied fumbling lasts all of 20 seconds before the flustered duo unsatisfactorily uncouple and part ways, with predictably awful results. I don't know about you, but this was enough to backseat my emerging libido for a good two summers.