WE ARE ALL SPICOLI. EXCEPT FOR SEAN PENN AND IAN CAIRNS

Nobody had high expectations for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, least of all the Universal Pictures execs who nearly shelved the finished product before putting it into limited release in 1981—only to have Roger Ebert, America’s most famous film critic, poleax it as a “scuz-pit of a movie.” God knows my own expectations were low, but we’d already seen Porky’s and 48 Hrs that summer and the Fast Tim...