Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is 1982 comedy starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus and the late Ray Walston and cameo scenes including by a then-unknown Nicolas Cage in his debut role and Forest Whitaker. The film is based on the book Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story by Cameron Crowe. The film was directed by Amy Heckerling (in her directorial debut). The film was placed in The National Film Registry in 2005.

Plot
Various teenagers at the fictional Ridgemont High School get into pickles of every shape and size.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Creative storyline.
 * 2) A lot of amusing quotes including Mr. Hand's "Are you all on dope?!?!"
 * 3) Many of the characters are amusing, especially Jeff Spicoli.
 * 4) The film is said by many people to be the king of teen comedies.
 * 5) Despite being very stern, Mr. Hand is a no nonsense teacher and is an amusing comic relief character.
 * 6) Many of the comical elements work.
 * 7) Unlike most teen films of its time, the film's female characters were portrayed respectfully since it was directed by a woman (Amy Heckerling, who would go on to direct Clueless which would also become a teen cinema classic in its own right).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Despite many of the characters being amusing, many of them are poor role models, especially Jeff.
 * 2) A lot of the characters have bad habits (eg. cursing, doing drugs, having underage sex, lying to a friend etc.)