All American High Revisited

In 1984, aspiring filmmaker Keva Rosenfeld turned his camera on the graduating class of Southern California's Torrance High School to make All American High, which was briefly released theatrically in 1987 and subsequently aired on PBS before disappearing from view. Thirty years later, Rosenfeld tracks down several of the students for an update on their lives, which is here tacked on the original as a coda. All American High offered an intriguing view of the school that inspired the cult comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the curriculum included a class on surfing!), and today's viewers will certainly enjoy seeing the atrocious hairstyles and clothing favored by fashionable youth from that bygone era. From a historical standpoint, Rosenfeld's film also reminds us of the less amusing aspects of the decade, most notably in ways that schools educated teenagers about the escalating political tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Rosenfeld's original film framed the Torrance High School environment through the eyes of Finnish exchange student Rikki Rauhala, and she returns here with several of her classmates for the new ruefully funny where-are-they-now epilogue. Recommended. (P. Hall)