All American High Revisited

NOT your typical preachy revisited film. Characters are still funny and some of their current situations are not what I would have predicted. Nearing my own 10year reunion, this was a fun watch. Def Recommend.

You can go back to high school and laugh at yourself and your friends by watching the students of Torrance High. There’s something in this film for everyone. The 90 minutes just zipped by! Watch it.

True confession: I went to high school in the 1980s, so I couldn't help but love the way this film feels like a time capsule (as has been noted by other reviewers). But I've since watched it with much younger friends and I think they loved it even more than I did. It was a stroke of genius to use a foreign exchange student as the audience surrogate. Her reactions to 1980s American culture will make this film universally appealing to audiences for many years. I can’t recommend this film enough. See it. Now. Don’t wait 30 years.

A hilarious and nostalgic journey back to high school in the 70s. Immediately gathered my teenage daughters and had them watch what life was like for their parents in the old days. Great bonding with lots of laughs.

Ok, so I FINALLY had time to watch the movie today. I have to admit that I wish you had prepared me a bit more. I didn't realize that by watching your documentary I was going to suddenly time warp back to my high school days (I'm class of '92). I didn't know that I was going to see in your students the same people that I went to school with. I smiled as I remembered the parties, the boring classes, and the days my best friend, James, and I would skip school to go hang out at the arcade and blow our quarters (that we had earned by working at a crappy go-cart/bumper boat tourist attraction). I was caught off guard by the feelings about my old high school sweetheart and how she broke my heart after graduation (I eventually got over it, but every so often i wonder what happened to her...). And I was unprepared for the tears that freely flowed as I watched Rikki and her family watch her younger self. It suddenly brought back memories of my time spent with my friends, especially James (who died in a drunk driving accident when we were 23. Man, I miss that guy...). I am a lucky, blessed man to be who I am, where I am these days, but I look back on my high school days with fond, bittersweet memories. Thank you SO much for making this documentary and giving it to all of us. If you're ever in Seattle I would like to buy you a beer, give you a high five, and play a round of Contra with you (it's how James and I spent many an after-school evening and it still brings a smile to my face when I think of all the "adventures" he and I had). With much gratitude and respect...

The pre-iPhone footage is awesome. Anyone lived through the 80s needs to see this. This is reality TV before reality TV was invented. Well worth the view.

Bitchen!

As Ricky says in the film, "American high school is more about socialization than education." Back in the 80s it looked like no one would have a thing to worry about: jobs would be plentiful, the first hints of the digital revolution would belong to American youth, not outsourced, one could play at being adults, and not think about how hard one would have to compete. How different everything looks now. While the comic rituals of this era are amusing, the lack of educational substance is profound. This is a documentary both for study and entertainment.

Amazing snapshot of Southern California high school life in the 80's. The tag line says it all -- Awkward. Awesome. Totally Rad.

5 STARS This movie is like opening a Time Capsule into another era. If you grew up in the 80’s, or are curious about what it was like back in the old days, this is a movie for you to see. Shot documentary style,, the director follows the graduating class from a Southern California high school 30 years ago. We get to witness all the action through the eyes of Ricki,, a foreign exchange student. I remember seeing the original movie when it came out, and even back then I thought that it captured the times perfectly. But with the addition of about twenty minutes of new footage, we get updates on many of the students featured in the film, including our proxy, Ricki. If watching the new footage doesn’t bring a tear to your eyes, you might already be dead inside. Ultimately, I found this documentary to be a real life story of redemption. By the way, I bought the movie instead of renting it so that I can watch it again and again,