Video Rewind

We go back to 2004 for a scorching drama from Austria, and we revisit our youth with a classic teen romp.

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) (B) - A time-capsule film if there ever was one, Cameron Crowe's screenwriting splash is now a quaint slice of life about hormonally charged teens struggling with their social skills. It still has its moments, but it feels so 35 years ago. So quaint.

The story holds up pretty well, but part of the appeal now is to see so many fresh-faced actors who would go on to various levels of acclaim over the years. It's hard to believe that Jennifer Jason Leigh wasn't very good back then. You can see why Phoebe Cates -- nothing more than a girl-next-door sex object here -- would eventually walk away from Hollywood. Otherwise, it's Spot the Future Star: John Cusack, Anthony Edwards, Taylor Negron, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stolz, good ol' Judge Reinhold.

This is still Sean Penn's movie as the fried surfer dude Spicoli who does battle with his arch-nemesis Mr. Hand (a delightful Ray Walston). Seemingly throwaway lines like "Hey, I know that dude," "That was my skull!" and "You dick!" are still embarrassingly funny.

There's something about the empty boasts of Mike Damone (Robert Romanus) and his pathetic character arc that still resonate. He embodies the hopes and fears of many an early '80s adolescent boy. And the almost casual treatment of abortion -- here depicted on a level with a trip to the dentist -- is both unnerving and refreshing.

Even back in the day this was a cartoonish version of early Gen X'ers as depicted by boomers Crowe and director Amy Heckerling. It's now a fun little analog keepsake.

ANTARES (2004) (B-minus) - Opening with the scene of a car crash, this appealing nugget cleverly weaves the stories of three couples with connections to a soulless apartment complex in Vienna.

Director Goetz Spielmann takes these tales in order, affording them about 40 minutes each, occasionally looping around to previous scenes but from a new perspective, following the next tangent. Eva (Petra Morze) is a bored nurse who rekindles an affair when her lover blows into town. Her dweeby husband doesn't have a clue, and their glum teenage daughter doesn't seem to care. Eva gets to indulge her repressed desires -- blindfolds, Polaroids -- in some fairly daring sex scenes with Tomasz (Andreas Patton).

Next up in Sonja (Susanne Wuest), a pixie-like checkout girl with debilitating jealousy issues over her Yugoslavian boyfriend Marco (Dennis Cubic), who pastes up billboards by day and realizes Sonja's fear by night -- using the excuse of walking the dog to pop in for trysts with a neighbor woman while her adolescent son busies himself elsewhere in the apartment. Sonja fakes a pregnancy out of desperation, with near-tragic results.

Finally, that other woman, Nicole (Martina Zinner), is connected with an asshole real-estate agent, Alex (Andreas Kiendl), a jerk with no redeeming qualities. For viewers seeking out sympathetic characters, look elsewhere. No one comes off well at all, and the exercise here seems to involve stewing in drab misery. Yet there's something alluring and nagging about the lurid look-in on the love lives of three unhappy women and their inconsiderate, indifferent and abusive men.