Thursday, June 11, 1998
Teens can’t hardly wait for life after graduation
FILM: Hoping audiences will recall simpler time, movie just
tries to be fun
By Teron Hide
Daily Bruin Contributor
Usually, trashing the set of a movie is an unspeakable act – but
for writers and directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, it was
no big deal. They wanted the cast and crew of their debut movie
"Can’t Hardly Wait" to do exactly that. Drawers were yanked out,
food was thrown on the floor, dirt was ground into the carpet and
"This Party Sucked!" was spray-painted on the front door.
In a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, the members of the cast
eagerly divulge their experiences on perhaps the biggest, rowdiest
gathering to ever hit the big screen.
"Can’t Hardly Wait," opening Friday, is about four guys, two
girls and an outrageous party. As the senior class of the
fictitious Huntington Hills High School prepares to move on to
bigger and better things, one final occasion remains – the
graduation party. Everyone will be there: jocks, geeks, prom
queens, loners and a few "homies." In a single, memorable night,
personal issues of infatuation, regret and revenge will be
resolved.
Sporting a checkered shirt and green cargo pants, and complete
with youthful face and playful exuberance, Elfont resembles his
film’s subject. Commenting on the inspiration for this no-holds
barred bash, he mischievously grins.
"The party in this film is not based off of solely one
particular experience growing up," Elfont says. "It was established
by an amalgam of various stories, word-of-mouth and pure
imagination."
Equally varied, the would-be teenagers are a relatively young
and unknown bunch from film and television. The group includes
Ethan Embry ("That Thing You Do") as the nice guy, Charlie Korsmo
("Hook", "Dick Tracy") as the class geek, Peter Facinelli ("Dancer,
Texas, Pop. 81") as the antagonistic super jock, Lauren Ambrose
("In & Out") as the introverted loner and Seth Green ("Buffy
The Vampire Slayer") as her ex-childhood friend turned "homeboy."
Last, but most recognizable, is the star of "Party of Five" and "I
Know What You Did Last Summer" Jennifer Love Hewitt, as the most
beautiful and popular girl in school.
Dressed in a lavender Armani Exchange blouse and black skirt
with a butterfly trinket adorning her hair, Hewitt remarks that she
decided to do the movie because it allowed her to portray a part
that, surprisingly, she has never played before – the class
knockout and dream girl of every young man’s fantasies – Amanda
Beckett.
"I tend to play the very natural-looking, girl-next-door, who
never gets the guy," Hewitt says. "And Amanda is the end-all,
be-all dream girl and the center of this guy’s affection. It was
nice to play a part where I get to dress up, have the hair and
make-up, the pretty outfit and be a teenage girl."
Audience members waiting to see a film in the mold of teen
classics like "Say Anything" and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High"
will be in for a surprise. Although "Can’t Hardly Wait" also uses
humor to portray the perils of teen angst, the film reflects its
different time period and social context. The producers, Betty
Thomas and Jenno Topping, were careful to add a dose of reality to
the story.
"You have a certain amount of responsibility to say that kids
are going out and drinking and driving, and doing the stuff that we
hate to think that they do. On the other hand, I think the movie
shows how tough peer pressure is when you’re a kid, and it’s not
like this doesn’t go on," Topping says. "But this movie is about
real problems and real solutions. And it’s mostly about
relationships and simply being who you are."
Bearing a striking resemblance to Tom Cruise (in both physical
likeness and vocal quality), Facinelli agrees with the producers
about the film’s uniqueness. Reminiscing about his own high school
days, the 23-year-old actor comments on how "Can’t Hardly Wait"
takes his dumb jock character, Mike Dexter, to unrealized
heights.
"There are a lot of movies with high school jocks, but usually
they’re one note. But in this you get to see different levels of
the ‘jock’," Facinelli says. "It’s so interesting to see how he
goes through this 360-degree cycle. I mean, for me, he’s probably
the most sympathetic character in the movie because he goes through
this whole journey and doesn’t learn anything from it."
The character William Lichter plans to publicly humiliate and
ruin Dexter’s reputation. Korsmo, who plays a Star Wars-loving
brainy geek, never believed that Lichter-like people existed until
he began college.
"Two years ago, I would have thought that this is a ridiculous
stereotype, and I’ve never met anyone this pathetic," Korsmo says
in his nasally voice. "But my neighbors at M.I.T. blew it all away.
These people exist, and I live among them."
Continuing the discussion about remarkably odd and embarrassing
characters, Green, playing perhaps the movie’s most humorous role,
Kenny Fisher, also puts in his 2 cents. Frighteningly similar to
Vanilla Ice, Kenny is a white male who desperately wants to be a
homie from the ghetto. When asked if he is prepared to handle the
possible negative feedback over his character, Green’s smile beams
and his eyes widen.
"It’s not like I’m going around saying ‘I hate black people!’ I
think people will see it as funny, because it’s obviously very
silly, and the sad fact of the matter is that the kid is just so
darn pathetic," Green says. "I encourage the fact that my character
is a loser because it makes it rewarding. You see him as this
pathetic wretch, and he has a little bit of redemption at the end
of the movie, and it works."
With this wild cast of characters, "Can’t Hardly Wait’s" simple
goal is to have fun. The film’s creators want the audience to take
a trip down memory lane. No rules, no tests, no authority figures –
just one big party.
FILM: "Can’t Hardly Wait" opens Friday.