Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1982, R, 92 min.
D: Amy Heckerling; with Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates.

So many debuts, so much promise. Amy Heckerling’s portrait of high school/shopping mall life in Southern California is still just about as good as it gets. It’s adapted from Cameron Crowe’s book, and the panoply of teen types and turmoils is dead-on accurate. Penn’s Jeff Spicoli is the stoner archetype, Cates is a real heartbreaker, and Reinhold has never again been this good.

This article appears in April 28 • 2000.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.