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Paul Weitz's "American Pie" |
"American Pie" Universal Pictures. Director: Paul Weitz. Writer: Adam Herz. Cast: Jason Biggs, Jennifer Coolidge, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Chris Owen, Tara Reid, Seann W. Scott, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Molly Cheek, Natasha Lyonne & Eugene Levy. US 1999. Director/Producer double act Paul and Chris Weitz follow up their screen writing duties on last years excellent "Antz" with this stunning debut. Together with screenwriting virgin Adam Herz they push the boundaries of the gross out comedy even further than the Farlleys' genre defining "There's Something About Mary". While they may not hit quite as many marks as their illustrious predecessors they come damn close. Imagine "Porky's" directed by John Hughes you'll be pretty close to this tale of four high-school boys who make a pledge to loose their virginity at the rapidly approaching high-school prom. The boys themselves are fairly two-dimensional, Jim (Biggs) the sensitive computer geek, Oz (Klein) the jock, Kevin (Nicholas) who's in a relationship but can't say the L. word and Finch (Thomas) the nerdy sophisticate. These four assorted characters are plunged into a series of increasingly gross and occasionally touching sexual encounters, which will seem at least vaguely familiar to anyone who has ever been a teenaged boy. It is this element of recognition that is the films strong point, we feel the varying emotions of these boys from adulation to humiliation as we watch their hormones rage before our eyes and think back to a time when we were the same. Herz takes the familiar events of every teenaged boy's life and pushes them just that little bit further until they reach gross without ever becoming unbelievable. Biggs holds the film together with a deceptively strong central performance, Klein offers fine support and Thomas steals the show while only Nicholas fails to impress out of the central four. If the male roles are 2D the female roles, as is so often the case with these movie, fail even to achieve that status. There is Nadia (Elizabeth) the foreign exchange student object of Jim's lustful affections, Michelle (Hannigan) Jim's nerdy last chance who steals the show with one truly killer line, Vicky (Reid) Kevin's long-term girlfriend, Heather (Suvari) the choir girl target of Oz's new found sensitivity & Jessica (Lyonne) the spunky sage. All however come and go, sometimes literally, without being given the material, Michelle's one liner aside, to make much of an impression. Scott and Owen breath some life into another pair of cookie-cutter characters as the oafish Stifler and the other-wordly Sherman whose apparent cherry popping antics lead to the fateful pact, respectively. Last but by know means least are Jim's over attentive parents played by Cheek and in the finest performance of a lacklustre career Levy. So we have a weak story, lousy characterisations and appalling acting, but at the same time we have some truly hilarious incidents. This is a movie of moments and while it may ultimately prove to be far less than the sum of its parts, some of those parts are funny enough to make the whole thing seem somehow worthwhile. I can think of a thousand reasons to dismiss this movie but none-the-less I must hang my head and rather shame-facedly admit that I loved every minute of it. Hardly ground-breaking but always hilarious this film is to be recommended to anyone with 95 minutes to spare. |