Coming-of-age rom-com.

Back in the late 90s and 00s, writer/director Mike Davis made some movies that I really liked. This one and 100 Girls come to mind immediately. He also used to comment here occasionally, educating us about the dynamics and economics of trying to make mass-market indie films. I have not heard from him, and don’t know what happened to him. Since 2007, his only two credits are animated films, and one of those is a short.

Davis has a specialty story, and it goes like this: the sincere, articulate, and sensitive but insecure guy pursues true love with the incredibly hot girl of his dreams, who is also his soul mate. His idealism is contrasted to the carnal appetites of a best friend who denies the existence of true love and lives only to pursue the perfect orgasm. The dream-girl is very sweet, but she’s currently overlooking our nerdy hero to pursue a relationship with a shallow but studly asshole. Our hero is undeterred by the competition, and undistracted by obstacles and temptations. It is true love, after all, so he is completely steadfast in his pursuit, for nothing can prevent him from winning his true love’s hand.

Throughout his early career, Davis worked that premise from several different angles. It is the basic idea behind 100 Girls, 100 Women, 8 Days a Week, and even his innovative gore comedy Monster Man.

In this particular version, Peter, our quixotic hero, spends the entire summer camped on the front lawn of his neighbor, Erica. She had been Peter’s best friend since childhood but takes no notice of him recently, at least since she grew up into a major babe and started to notice football players. Peter didn’t plan to do anything so dramatic as his sit-in, but he was persuaded to do so by a story from his grandfather. It seems that back in Italy their mutual ancestor was not noticed by his own true love, so he decided to stand under her balcony until she came down and loved him back. He did and she did. The scene in 19th century Italy was shown in sepia tone, with the lovers played by the same two actors.

If you hadn’t already noticed, the Italian balcony story is a tribute to the film classic Cinema Paradiso. Davis is obviously a major film fan, and sprinkles this story with cute references to several films. You must not miss Peter’s dowdy parents acting out the door-smashing scene from Body Heat.

The dream girl does not respond to Peter’s attentions quite so quickly in 1997 as the look-alike dream woman did in the Italian flashbacks. In fact, as you might expect, Erica finds his stalking to be flattering, but also slightly creepy to the point that, were he not a lifelong friend, she’d probably be calling the police. Her parents don’t mind at all, however, since they like sweet, comfortable Peter much better than the creepy football player with the hot car. Peter’s horny friend informs him quite correctly that no guy has ever been able to woo a hot babe if her parents like him, so he concocts a plan to defy her religious parents and cause Erica to see him in a different light.

While he bivouacs on her front lawn, he has a chance to observe the comings and goings of everyone in the neighborhood. Since he has too much time to kill, he forms some mistaken impressions of his neighbors’ activities, often imputing malicious intent where it may not be warranted, as if he were in Rear Window. Peter’s runaway imagination gives the author a chance to make some funny and rich observations about the difference between appearances and reality, but the most important thing about this device is that it allows Peter to learn that people are far more complex and wonderful than they seem on the surface.

As time goes on, Erica starts to talk to Peter, they bond, and … well, it doesn’t matter, does it? You know how these nerd-pursues-babe stories are going to end (except maybe for The Last American Virgin), so the important thing for you to know is whether the situations, observations, and jokes make it worth getting there.

In this case, they do.

I like this film, always have. It shows a lot of genuine wit, a true understanding of the uneasy balance between idealism and raging hormones in adolescence, and an embracing compassion for its characters, even some minor ones. Keri Russell is drop dead gorgeous. Mike Davis writes some intelligent and witty observations which come through in the dialogue and in the hero’s voice-overs. If the film has a glaring weakness, it is that the observational humor is sometimes too sophisticated for the (presumed young) target audience. Now that I think about it, its basically a film for very smart adolescents, or for overgrown adolescents like me.

Be that as it may, I recommend it. Ignore the reviews. If you like raunchy and/or heartfelt coming-of-age comedies; if you enjoyed American Pie, “The Wonder Years”, and “Pete and Pete”; you should watch this, because it may be the best of its kind that you have not seen.

And Keri Russell is so delicious!

The film clips are Blu-Ray quality.

The brief flash of Keri’s boobs is nice, but most people recall the non-nude scenes, especially the one where she’s playing with the sprinkler. I have often mentioned that it is one of the all-time sexiest non-nude scenes.

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