American Pie
I didn’t watch “American Pie” until a year after it’s release- it just wasn’t a movie I was interested in, even if it did have Alyson Hannigan from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in it. The previous summer, “There’s Something About Mary” put me off to raunchy live-action comedies, and “American Pie” was sold on the raunch. Universal did the film a disservice in doing so. Of the explosion of teen movies in 1999, Paul Weitz’s “getting laid” comedy is one of the best, with a simple premise that writer Adam Herz wrings every bit of sincerity out of with a cast that we enjoy watching. I still think the sequel in 2001 is better, but that’s another story.
The film starts with Jim (Jason Biggs) getting ready to masturbate into a tube sock to scrambled porn; honestly, the film would be worse if it didn’t. This not only sets up the initial dilemma for Jim, but also his parents, and especially, the great Eugene Levy as his father. We next see him confiding in his best friends about the situation, and we find that Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Oz (Chris Klein) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) are all at the same time in their life when it comes to being virgins in high school as we go through a party that night at Stiffler’s; Stiffler is that cool kid who is a dick to everyone, yet has still gotten laid, and he’s played by Seann William Scott as an obnoxious foil/friend to the quartet at the center. After that party, they make a pact that they will get laid by the end of the school year, and prom is their deadline.
There’s not really a lot in this movie I laugh out loud with in terms of comedy; there was more in 2000, when I watched it, but now, I merely enjoy the film. What I think makes this interesting, and still worth watching after 20 years, is how each character remains themselves while going through some changes as their path towards their virginity ending plays out. For Kevin, his relationship with Vicky (Tara Reid) has hit a wall, and they are overthinking sex and intimacy (Kevin can’t say “I love you,” and Vicky wants it to be “perfect”), but it really boils down to the fact that they are preparing for a life after high school where they will be separated by distance in college. Even though Kevin is the least interesting of the four, and kind of a dick towards Vicky, by the end we feel like we’ve seen a complete arc with them, a big part because Reid as Vicky is someone who keeps him honest, and isn’t just “batting her eyes” in love with Kevin, but it’s a relationship with back-and-forths that keep it grounded as a real relationship. Oz is a typical jock in a lot of ways, and at the beginning it feels like he’s getting pointers from Stiffler, but when he joins choir to meet girls, and falls for Mena Suvari’s Heather, it’s a test of him doing more than he has, and thinking about girls not just as conquests like Stiffler, but actually as people with feelings that are his responsibility if he hurts them. He shows the most personal growth, and Suvari is good as the inspiration. Paul Finch- nicknamed “shit break” by Stiffler because he goes home to go to the bathroom, even at school- is annoyingly smug compared to the rest, but the way he approaches the bet is a bit different, and we sympathize with him when Stiffler embarrasses him at school, making his first time experience not just a sly nod to “The Graduate,” but sweet from a character point-of-view.
This brings us to Jim. First of all, Biggs is a wonderful protagonist for this film. From that first scene, he is endearingly earnest and awkward, and even if we are grossed out by the sight of him with a tube sock over his dick or him banging an apple pie, we know he’s just figuring things out, and he is trying to get his confidence about him. There are two women he is involved with throughout the film, and the punchlines in both underscore some key points this film has in its favor. The first is his infatuation with Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), leading to him streaming a striptease she makes in his bedroom one day over the internet, without her knowledge. In the #MeToo era, I was unsure how this was going to play, at first, during the rewatch, but it’s in how Nadia handles Jim’s trying to seduce her by casually “walking in” on her that makes it palatable. She turns the tables on Jim in a way that turns into his humiliation instead, which immediately punishes him for his violation of her privacy; Elizabeth isn’t anything more than eye candy in this, but she makes the most of this scene.
The second woman in Jim’s life is Michelle, and I can honestly say that Hannigan’s character is probably one of my favorites in movie history. (What they did with her in “American Pie 2” is what solidifies that.) It’s not just about the saucy payoff of her “This one time, at band camp,” schtick throughout the film, but it’s because of something I enjoyed realizing about what those stories mean. While they’re on their way up to Stiffler’s cabin on prom night, she asks Jim, “You know, you haven’t shared any stories,” and it honestly made me realize that this band geek character was actually defining her character beyond just a simple joke, but telling us about what memories she’s going to take from high school. For people in band, that’s what matters; the moments of camaraderie and silliness during the shared experiences during long rehearsals or down times that stay with us. They play true to that while also leading to a big moment for both characters at the end that is a hilarious climax to Jim’s story. That is what really endeared me to “American Pie” after a year delay in watching it.
