As conservative as apple pie

Rating: 3/10 (2 June 2005)

The American high school, as depicted in modern comedy, is a strange place indeed: full of over-aged, foul mouthed jocks and sexy, self-aware young women and what's more, every one of them is affluent. In a country where many real schools have metal detectors on the doors to keep out firearms, it's a relentlessly aspirational world, which, for all the cruelty and anguish on display, the target teen-aged audience can dream that they belong to. In addition, for all the toilet humour, it's a profoundly conservative world as well. 'American Pie', for example, may set new lows (if that's how you want to consider them) in toilet humour, but fundamentally this is a film about the joys of belonging; belonging with your friends, your lovers, even belonging with your decidedly weird father. In this narrative, the fear of isolation is eventually banished through the mere possession of an essentially good heart. Real outsiders, if they appear at all, appear only as losers, virtually labelled as the child-abusers of the next generation in punishment for their failure to learn how to fit in.
In fact, viewed in these terms, 'American Pie' is far from the most offensive film in it's genre, with a little less smug sanctimoniousness behind the smut than is usual in such fare. Unfortunately, it's just not that funny. The plot is simple: four guys try to get laid, and the absence of real narrative reduces the film to a series of set pieces devoid of real context. Even the eponymous pie gag isn't even particularly gross, and there's none of the offbeat charm of 'There's Something About Mary' (which aimed at a slightly older audience and which I found rather funnier than I like to admit). The success of films like this is all about selling a lifestyle: this is a film about how the average teenager might like to lose their virginity. Real life is darker, but also, often funnier as well.