Fast Times at Ridgemont High

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In my friend’s book of 1000 important films, and it’s in the category of high-school-life movies that fascinate me. Uncomfortable-making movie that always seems to be on verge of falling into incoherence, but doesn’t quite. The characters seem unbelievable, and the Mike Damone character is creepy, so old-looking and creepy that no one in real life would go near him. And yet, the other characters are somehow appealing, the movie is prurient in a somehow effective way. Somehow it believes in itself.