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Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

A teen movie that didn’t settle for portraying all the usual teen movie tropes.

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Episode Notes

In the new episode of Flashback, movie critics Dana Stevens and K. Austin Collins discuss the teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), directed by Amy Heckerling.

Other titles mentioned in the episode:
Clueless (1995)
Mean Girls (2004)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Euphoria (2019)
Porky’s (1981)
Almost Famous (2000)
American Pie (1999)
Heathers (1989)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Thirteen (2003)
Fame (1980)
Dangerous Minds (1995)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Knocked Up (2007)
Juno (2007)
Citizen Ruth (1996)
The Hateful Eight (2016)

Roger Ebert’s review
Janet Maslin’s New York Times review

On the next episode: Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964)

Comments or suggestions? Email us at flashback@slate.com

Production by Chau Tu.

About the Show

Every two weeks, film critics Dana Stevens (Slate) and K. Austin Collins (Vanity Fair) revisit notable films from the past—movies outside of the current releases and that have influenced modern culture and canon—and analyze them with a contemporary, critical eye.

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Hosts

  • Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

  • K. Austin Collins is a film critic for Vanity Fair and a crossword constructor for the New Yorker and the New York Times.