American Pie
Year: 1999
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Chris Klein, Eugene Levy, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott & Mena Suvari
Runtime: 95 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/05/22
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Chris Klein, Eugene Levy, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott & Mena Suvari
Runtime: 95 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 13/05/22
A genre that has mostly died out in the last decade or so is the teen sex comedy. Popular in the 00’s, the teen sex comedy can usually be typified as a story about teenage boys embarking on various crude and occasionally dangerous escapades in order to lose their virginity or hook up with their crush. For some reason these films were for a long time a bankable investment for studios because of their low budgetary requirements and almost guaranteed high box office gross. Whilst teen sex comedies did exist for quite some time before the 90’s, that decade is credited with reviving the genre, and the specific film that is responsible for that is American Pie. Now nearing twenty-five years old, American Pie has never shed its raunchy legacy, but is the film as antiquated as it might seem at first glance?
Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nichols), and Finch (Eddie Kay Thomas) are all in their final year of high school and yet to lose their virginity, which fellow classmate Stifler (Seann William Scott) is keen to remind them of. Following a party at Stiflers where classmate Sherman (Chris Owen) loses his virginity, the four friends make a pact to have sex by prom.
This pact causes tension between Kevin and his girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), Oz starts to fall in love with classmate, Heather (Mena Suvari) and question whether he wants to rush into it, Finch starts spreading rumours about himself in the hopes to increase his chances of scoring, and Jim gets very intimate with baked goods.
For better or worse, American Pie set the bar for teen sex comedies in a way that hadn’t been done so successfully since National Lampoon’s Animal House in 1978. Grossing twenty times its budget, American Pie was a smash hit, and went on to spawn four direct sequels between 2001 and 2012 (American Pie 2, American Wedding, and American Reunion), and five spin-offs between 2005 and 2020 (Band Camp, Naked Mile, Beta House, Book of Love, and Girls Rules).
I remember watching American Pie for the first time when I was around thirteen years old, and it came around the same time as my own peers began bragging about their sexual conquests; I remember connecting with American Pie really well, and as a thirteen-year-old boy I found a lot of the humour to be exactly what I found funny at that point in my life.
But now I’m on the cusp of being twenty-seven, with those school days long behind me and realising that the legitimacy of those conquests my peers bragged about being dubious at best, it feels like a relic of a forgotten time…and one that’s probably best left that way.
Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nichols), and Finch (Eddie Kay Thomas) are all in their final year of high school and yet to lose their virginity, which fellow classmate Stifler (Seann William Scott) is keen to remind them of. Following a party at Stiflers where classmate Sherman (Chris Owen) loses his virginity, the four friends make a pact to have sex by prom.
This pact causes tension between Kevin and his girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), Oz starts to fall in love with classmate, Heather (Mena Suvari) and question whether he wants to rush into it, Finch starts spreading rumours about himself in the hopes to increase his chances of scoring, and Jim gets very intimate with baked goods.
For better or worse, American Pie set the bar for teen sex comedies in a way that hadn’t been done so successfully since National Lampoon’s Animal House in 1978. Grossing twenty times its budget, American Pie was a smash hit, and went on to spawn four direct sequels between 2001 and 2012 (American Pie 2, American Wedding, and American Reunion), and five spin-offs between 2005 and 2020 (Band Camp, Naked Mile, Beta House, Book of Love, and Girls Rules).
I remember watching American Pie for the first time when I was around thirteen years old, and it came around the same time as my own peers began bragging about their sexual conquests; I remember connecting with American Pie really well, and as a thirteen-year-old boy I found a lot of the humour to be exactly what I found funny at that point in my life.
But now I’m on the cusp of being twenty-seven, with those school days long behind me and realising that the legitimacy of those conquests my peers bragged about being dubious at best, it feels like a relic of a forgotten time…and one that’s probably best left that way.
The humour of American Pie is so incredibly dated and is extremely misogynistic. Whilst that should come as no surprise considering the age of the film, and the premise is what it is, I do find it kind of surprising the amount of stuff they were able to get away with. Women are just sex objects in this film, with the only two female characters that don’t completely fall into that pit being Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Jessica escapes it simply because she is unattainable and is written more closely to one of the male characters as a result. Michelle meanwhile is unwanted, to anyone who even acknowledges her existence she is to be avoided. Of course, this becomes the final punchline of the film when she actually turns out to be the most sexually active and liberated member of the entire student body, and then pounces on an unsuspecting Jim.
Women being little more than objects in film is nothing new, and unfortunately still a big problem today, however American Pie is such a gross offender of this by having the female characters of the story being nothing more than sexual conquests for the male characters (plus then there's that whole scene with Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) being tricked into stripping on the internet...and it's honestly so bad that I don't even know where to start).
However, there is one thing that American Pie did which I completely forgot about, which does go some way to redeeming its more negative traits, and that’s the ending. Come the climax of the film all the guys other than Kevin have seen the pact as a waste of time and kind of gross. They’d much rather take their time with things, have sex in a way that feels natural and not just because you and your guy friends said you would. Kevin is still determined to do it, but it comes at a cost and he’s the only person come the end of the film who’s unhappy with how things panned out.
There’s only one true standout performer in the entire film and that’s Eugene Levy as Jim’s Dad. Whilst everyone definitely gets their moment, Levy is the scene stealer anytime he is on screen. I believe a lot of his performance was improvised and it works so well because of the scenes he is in. Usually centred around masturbation, and Jim’s somewhat strange practices; this on-the-spot nature of his performance is perfect and never fails to be funny.
Is American Pie worth revisiting after all this time? Probably not. If you watched the film when you were a teen like I did and still find that kind of humour funny then I think we have a bigger problem, but as for teens of today, I’m not sure whether it would resonate the same. American Pie is a product of its time, and it was successful for good reason, it did what it did extremely well and became a true trendsetter. But as with all products of their time, it’s probably best left there than resurrected for modern audiences.
Women being little more than objects in film is nothing new, and unfortunately still a big problem today, however American Pie is such a gross offender of this by having the female characters of the story being nothing more than sexual conquests for the male characters (plus then there's that whole scene with Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) being tricked into stripping on the internet...and it's honestly so bad that I don't even know where to start).
However, there is one thing that American Pie did which I completely forgot about, which does go some way to redeeming its more negative traits, and that’s the ending. Come the climax of the film all the guys other than Kevin have seen the pact as a waste of time and kind of gross. They’d much rather take their time with things, have sex in a way that feels natural and not just because you and your guy friends said you would. Kevin is still determined to do it, but it comes at a cost and he’s the only person come the end of the film who’s unhappy with how things panned out.
There’s only one true standout performer in the entire film and that’s Eugene Levy as Jim’s Dad. Whilst everyone definitely gets their moment, Levy is the scene stealer anytime he is on screen. I believe a lot of his performance was improvised and it works so well because of the scenes he is in. Usually centred around masturbation, and Jim’s somewhat strange practices; this on-the-spot nature of his performance is perfect and never fails to be funny.
Is American Pie worth revisiting after all this time? Probably not. If you watched the film when you were a teen like I did and still find that kind of humour funny then I think we have a bigger problem, but as for teens of today, I’m not sure whether it would resonate the same. American Pie is a product of its time, and it was successful for good reason, it did what it did extremely well and became a true trendsetter. But as with all products of their time, it’s probably best left there than resurrected for modern audiences.