Paul and Chris Weitz direct Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy and Seann William Scott in this raunchy teen comedy about four inept boys trying to lose their virginity before high school ends. 

Perhaps the most recent film I will feel nostalgic about. I remember it being one of the first movies I went to see after moving to Edinburgh (at the ABC Lothian Road) back when I could only really afford to go see one film a month. That barren period, while waiting to find a job, saw me ration myself to just Big Daddy, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense and this over the end of 1999. So all absolute classics then… apart from The Sixth Sense. But here’s the thing, each time I rewatch American Pie it holds up remarkably well. Partly it marks the end of my teen years in an idealised way. Those check shirts and that post punk soundtrack of Harvey Danger / Barenaked Ladies / Blink-182 are very familiar. The weird mix of pent up frustration and romantic yearning shown in the lads was rarely depicted on screen then and feels truer than a lot of more serious teen dramas. So an emotional connection probably elevates it. And Pie has its flaws; there is a visual flatness that feels unambitious even for a teen comedy, one or two scenes have dated horribly (I guess broadcasting a girl stripping on the internet without her knowledge didn’t have the permanency or emotional harm attached to it as revenge porn does these days). But even in those awkwardly ickier moments, the joke is eventually turned on the boys. They end up either improved or the butt of their crass actions after every single transgression. And they are purposely a likeable, sensitive bunch… a million years more emotionally mature and aware than the soulless lunks who smirked and winked and groped through the Eighties equivalents (see Porkys, Police Academy, Ski Patrol etc). American Pie’s real strength is in a strong cast. Biggs has a natural gangly slapstick desperation that he sadly grew out of. Eddie Kaye Thomas is memorable as the pretentious long game player. Seann William Scott isn’t even part of the core group and he kills as the utterly comfortable in his own skin arsehole jock. The girls are given more to do than just be mindless conquests… maybe not quite the shading gifted to the lads… but Alyson Hannigan and Natasha Lyonne get moments and lines that suggest a concerted effort has been made not to have them all be mere nubile trophies to be won. Most importantly though, there are more than a half a dozen killer set pieces. Sure, some are dumbly gross (the infamous pie fuck nowadays actually feels rather tame) but many have an internal tension and patient build-up that show expert timing and a crucial understanding of how to milk a good gag. Just watch the scene where a beer and spunk cocktail is unwittingly passed back and forth, bought to the lips and interrupted constantly by Scott and his nervy prey. All it lacks is the overkill of the ominous Jaws theme to emphasise the prolonged horror unfolding. American Pie is packed deep with such strong sequences making it still a laugh-out-loud hoot while also now a warm and sweet blast from the past.

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