I Just Saw

American Pie wasn’t the first sex comedy to up the raunch and gross-out levels before Tom Green pushed them to their apex (nadir?) in Freddy Got Fingered. But it’s a milestone in teen sex comedies, sliding them a little further out of the Stone Age – as represented by entries in the ‘80s – to tell an actual story of sorts with quasi-relatable characters.

The film, as you likely know, is about a group of teenage boys pledging to lose their virginities before prom. Somehow this premise spawned 9 (yes, 9) films, 4 cinematic and 5 straight-to-video in the American Pie Presents series, as if these boobs-and-boners comedies are Star Wars.

The plot follows nice but nerdish Jim (Jason Biggs), kind of our main character in that he opens and closes the film; bro with a heart of bullion Oz (Chris Klein); Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), who doesn’t really have a personality but functions as a sort of mystic yogi for the group (at one point he finds a secret guide to pleasuring women passed down between men for generations; seems harder than just asking a girl what she wants); and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), a pseudo-sophisticate neurotic.

Outside the pact is their frenemy Stifler (Seann William Scott), a gross sexual bully and cretin who somehow became a breakout character. The ‘90s, man… they were a different time. The other breakout character is Jim’s dad, played by Eugene Levy, who’s much more likeable and has many of the film’s funniest moments.

The story remains surprisingly sweet for what it is, emphasising characters who grow and change to some degree. Unfortunately, the later sequels would focus on Stifler, a character I’ve never liked and am still slightly confused as to why so many people (including certain critics) did. Here he’s kind of the antagonist, the one interrupting the course of true love, which is the right usage.

The movie’s niceness compared to previous genre entries like the Porky’s films probably explains in part its success. For once there was a raunchy teenage sex comedy that girls could watch and enjoy as well. There was gross stuff for boys and limited nudity, but also romance and character development.

It does, however, need to be said that a very large chunk of the film is EXTREMELY dated. It’s largely dedicated to a subplot involving Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), the foreign exchange student.

It is truly a bizarre experience to watch in a cinema in 2024 a sequence where a teenage girl (in the story) is secretly spied upon while changing by half the neighbourhood, via webcam. Granted, our de facto antagonist Stifler suggests this violation, but most of our “heroes” immediately agree with and implement it. Commercial internet was less widespread and also just less understood regarding its capacity for abuse in the late ‘90s, but… it’s still weird that this plot point was not only written but green-lit and received without backlash, right?

For all of the problematic material, though, American Pie remains intermittently funny and has a somewhat positive message: sex isn’t everything and you need to be reciprocal with women if you want to enjoy their company. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a fun if sometimes squirmy pop-cultural artefact.

Rating: 3/4