![]() Natasha Lyonne and Tara Reid in American Pie. Hannigan, Suvari, Reid and Coolidge are, respectively, the partners who generously escort them into manhood, half by their own sexual aggression (Coolidge as a Mrs Robinson type, Hannigan as a dorky flutist who had an awakening “this one time, at band camp”) and the other half by romantic coercion. Biggs, Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Eddie Kaye Thomas play the four virgins on the prowl, and they all eventually get what they want, but not before the universe punishes them for their efforts. Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge were the only established comic talents – Levy, out of some mercenary sense of obligation, would be the only star to appear in all eight American Pie movies – and Alyson Hannigan had completed a couple seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Natasha Lyonne, Seann William Scott and Shannon Elizabeth were mostly unknown, and John Cho, who comments briefly on Coolidge’s Milf-y appeals, was still five years away from the first Harold & Kumar film.ĭirectors Paul and Chris Weitz, working from a script by Adam Herz, give American Pie a democratic quality that allows all these young actors a chance to set themselves apart, though the boys naturally get more opportunities than the girls. Much of it has to do with the casting, which brought together several stars (or near stars) of tomorrow before they were recognizable faces. Three sequels and a direct-to-video spinoff series down the line, however, it’s worth reflecting on the specific magic that made American Pie the sensation its predecessors and imitators were not. There would be nudity – and, with American Pie, an “unrated” home video version that suggested (but didn’t deliver) material that was too hot for MPAA. The webcam in American Pie was merely a tech update on the locker-room peephole that Porky’s plastered on its poster, and both films were fully prepared to deliver the voyeuristic kick they promised. The film also worked in the post-Animal House tradition of boys behaving badly, specifically Porky’s, which was also about nerdy high school students who make a pact to lose their virginity. And these set pieces were the big draw, just as they were a year earlier with There’s Something About Mary, when the “hair gel” scene and the “zipper” scene were shorthand hooks that brought people to theaters, regardless of the actual premise. ![]() Photograph: Moviestore/REX/ShutterstockĬritics were divided on American Pie’s contributions to the trend – the infamous pie, the semen in a beer cup, the mochaccino spiked with laxatives – but they were by no means the lowest of the low. Jason Biggs, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas in American Pie. At the time, the Farrelly brothers hits Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary were sparking a can-you-top-this cycle of R-rated comedies that carried into the early 2000s, with titles now either forgotten (Say It Ain’t So, Slackers, Waiting …) or not worth remembering (Scary Movie, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder). In 1999, American Pie was at the end of one phase and the beginning of another, which is why it seems both dated and prescient – a relic from a randier era of cable-ready frathouse and gross-out comedies, and a look ahead to a sweeter brand of raunch, rooted in deep friendships and the possibility of a more mature, longer-lasting romance. For male viewers especially, it’s a perverse form of escapism: they can recognize how awkward and embarrassing those first sexual encounters tend to be, but hey, at least they didn’t liken a woman’s breasts to “bags of sand” or get caught dipping their wick into a warm apple pie. The films have evolved with the culture – and frankly, a healthy shift in the rules of engagement – but they’re part of a long continuum of teen (or man-child) sex romps that deal in humiliating rites of passage. It’s being made in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, in Superbad, in Neighbors, in Booksmart, in the constant flow of cringe-inducing comedies about love and friendship among the sexually inexperienced. Yet 20 years later, American Pie is being made all the time.
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