Sweet? Inoffensive? Sentimental?! What IS happening to the gross-out movie?

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 1999)

I'm sorry. I go to gross-out movies to see a mounting series of disgusting, childish mishaps befall relatively pleasant characters. I want to see scenes that should probably never have been allowed. I want humiliation, body failure, slapstick and the obligatory liquid scene. This AMERICAN PIE provides in mild-mannered spades. What I don't want is maturity and Prince Hal.
It could be argued that THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, last year's Hollywood masterpiece, leavened its gross-out with generous portions of ick, but a love quest was built into that film from the beginning, the success or failure of which was going to have an emotional effect. Also, the characters were significantly older than the kids of AMERICAN PIE, so the pay-off was more believable, and because the characters were so sweet, more satisfying.
AMERICAN PIE is about a quartet of hormonal boys who want to get laid before they go to college. As 49% of the population experience this agony at some time in their lives, the film has to be pretty accurate in its details to succeed, and it largely is. The guys are very likeable and believable, their mishaps ring very true. Their worldview shapes the film, and is rarely betrayed. The film, which everyone compares to PORKY'S, is miles above that infantile gag in its relatively even-handed treatment of women, who are not the inscrutable, unattainable, type, but a varied, complex lot. Even the set-piece with Nadja, which begins as sheer exploitation, ends up with the male lead deeply humiliated.
The universal implications of the title are a wild misnomer: it should have been called Upper-Middle-Class American Pie. Every character lives in a big house, with no real dysfunction, so that they can afford to spend all their time fretting about sex (I'd forgotten how much EFFORT goes into this, though). Every character is going to college; every main character is white. An AMERICAN PIE from the projects would be a very different film.
For a comedy to be lastingly funny, there has to be trauma. That's why the mature angst of one couple strikes me as false. The growing relationship of another is lovely, but unlikely: it's like gross-out films lack the bottle to go all the way - the repulsiveness has to sweetened. The Farellys tried with KINGPIN, but were accused of misogyny, even misanthropy. Only SOUTH PARK dared to go all the way, cynically parodying feel-good redemption, But, hey, that was only a cartoon, right? And yet, even the maturity is a lie. The characters learn that a selfish obsession with having sex is not the most important thing in life, and yet they do anyway.
But I don't know why I'm carping. AMERICAN PIE is a side-splitting hoot from start to finish. LIke all the best comedy, the humiliation is linked to character, and Jim's experiences especially are among the funniest things I've seen in years - the practicing; the understanding talks given by his father; his immortal strip-tease; the pie! Priceless. Shame he looks like a cross between Ross Geller and Adam Sandler.
A more satisfying melancholy concerns the allusions to Hal and Falstaff. Like the former, the characters have big careers in front of them, and must reject the exuberant licentiousness of their youth. There is a real sense of loss at the end, of a time having certainly past, which is perversely moving. Most adult figures condone, even encourage, the teenage hi-jinx: they know it's as good as it's going to get.
None of the misfortunes really spring from malice, so there is rarely a bad taste left in one's mouth (except Stifler's). Director Weitz could become a great comedy director - he knows how to cut scenes short for maximum effect: more experienced comedians drag on and on. My only complaint would be the relatively short space allocated to Finch - he is a wonderful character, filled with a strange, devious self-confidence behind his apparent geekiness: you've got to like a guy who can wisecrack in Latin.