Category: Fast Times At Ridgemont High

My 2025 Personal Film Festival, Part 3 and Conclusion

For Parts 1 and 2 of this series, please see here and here. Just to reiterate, I am not a film critic in the traditional sense, merely an autodidactic lover of film and film history who curated his own, somewhat random, film festival over the first four months of 2025. It began when my wife … Continue reading My 2025 Personal Film Festival, Part 3 and Conclusion →

Matt Berger 1980s Teen Films, Alan Moore, All About Eve, Almost Famous, Anne Baxter, Anomalisa, Anthony Edwards, Atheism, Before Sunrise, Blank City, Cameron Crowe, Charlie Kaufman, Dashiell Hammett, David Lynch, David Thewlis, Dazed and Confused, Denis Villeneuve, Don't Say a Word, Enemy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Film, Hammett, HistoryBuffs, Hugo Weaving, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Interrogating Memory, Jake Gyllenhall, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Jarmusch, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Liquid Sky, Martin Scorsese, Miracle Mile, Morgan Richter, My life, Nastassja Kinski, Natalie Portman, Paris Texas, Philadelphia, Prisoners, Punk, Richard Linklater, Slacker, Smithereens, Surrealism, Susan Seidelman, Taxi Driver, The Shadow, The Sixth Sense, The Sure Thing, Toni Collette, V For Vendetta, Wavelength, Wim Wenders, Woody Allen 1 Comment May 22, 2025May 22, 2025 16 Minutes

My 100 Favorite Films…Probably

[Ed. note: This essay was updated on April 1, 2025] On December 1, 2022, Sight and Sound Magazine released the results of its decennial Greatest Films of All Time Critics’ Poll (“SS Poll”). The key result is that Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles dethroned Vertigo as the “greatest film of all time.”[1] … Continue reading My 100 Favorite Films…Probably →

Matt Berger A Night at the Opera, Alfred Hitchcock, Back to the Future, Charlie Chan, Data collection, David Lynch, Double Indemnity, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Film, Film Noir, Hammett, L.A. Confidential, Marx Brothers, Measurement, Murder on the Orient Express, My life, Neo Noir, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak, Sidney Lumet, Statistical reasonsing, Thank God Its Friday, The Cotton Club, The Maltese Falcon, The Public Eye, The Sure Thing, Times Square, Woody Allen 8 Comments January 14, 2023April 1, 2025 21 Minutes

And the Most Compelling 1980s Film Teen Character Is…

At 12:03 EST on May 17, 2022, I posted this poll on Twitter, using the handle @drnoir33: Let the tournament begin! Who is the most compelling teenaged character in a 1980s film? The 1st 1st round matchup between Sheltered Kids is Frances "Baby" Houseman (DIRTY DANCING) vs. Stacey Hamilton (FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) Who … Continue reading And the Most Compelling 1980s Film Teen Character Is… →

Matt Berger 1980s Teen Films, Back to the Future, Beetlejuice, Dirty Dancing, Double Indemnity, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Film, John Cusack, John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, Morgan Richter, My life, Ordinary People, Pretty In Pink, Say Anything, Times Square, Timothy Hutton, Winona Ryder 4 Comments June 6, 2022June 6, 2022 8 Minutes

Who Is the Most Compelling Teenaged Film Character of the 1980s?

The otherworldly Netflix series Stranger Things returns on May 27. As a result, my wife Nell and I are watching the entire series straight through – all 25 episodes – for the third time. Some episodes, like the latter two of Season Two, we are watching for a fourth or fifth time. I first wrote … Continue reading Who Is the Most Compelling Teenaged Film Character of the 1980s? →