By Miles Purinton

Its prospective student time at Kenyon, and to show prospective students that we care and to fuel the nostalgia many college students feel toward the end of a semester, the Kenyon Film Society has returned to high school this week. Were showing two iconic films depicting fictionalized versions of high school life.

High School Week

Friday, April 13 Mean Girls

I ordinarily use these blurbs to summarize the weekends films and discuss the movies critical and/or public acclaim. This specific blurb is going to be different because every single person reading this knows about Mean Girls. If you do not know about Mean Girls, ask someone nearby, and they will incredulously reply, Youve never heard of Mean Girls? Whats wrong with you? FOUR FOR YOU, GLEN COCO! In case youve forgotten, Mean Girls is an incredibly quotable teen comedy written by celebrity and all-around symbol of perfection Tina Fey that exposes the nature of cliques in a high school environment. The film stars Lindsay Lohan, who, you might recall, was actually a fantastic actress at one point, and a wonderfully evil Rachel McAdams as her queen bee nemesis. It also features performances by Fey, Amanda Seyfried, Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Neil Flynn, Lizzy Caplan, Lacey Chabert, Jonathan Bennett and Daniel Franzese.

Saturday, April 14 Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the original high school movie, all but invented the coming-of-age teen comedy. Despite the outdated references and countless copy-cats, the humor still feels fresh 30 years after its original release in 1982. The film, which follows the lives of several high school students, was critically panned when it was first released (Roger Ebert called it a scuz-pit of a movie), but has since gained status as a classic and was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress for cultural significance. The films ensemble cast includes early performances by Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sean Penn whose portrayal of time-wasting stoner Jeff Spicoli catapulted him to stardom. The film also features cameo appearances by then-unknown actors such as Forest Whitaker and Nicolas Cage, who at the time was still acting under his original name, Nicolas Coppola.

Both screenings are at 7:30 p.m. in the KAC Theater. As always, KFS screenings are free. Well see you there!

[starbox id=”miles_purinton”]