Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

This is one I've watched many times over the years and still just a fun teen movie, with a great cast that doesn't rely heavily on gross-out moments. **3.75/5**

***An epic all-night high school graduation party at a Los Angeles mansion***

This is a sometimes amusing, sometimes cringe-inducing look at the good, the bad and the embarrassing of the high school years. It’s interesting seeing certain up-and-comers when they were so young, like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lauren Ambrose, Seth Green, Jaime Pressly, Amber Benson, Selma Blair and Jennifer Lyons. Then there’s Melissa Joan Hart, Jenna Elfman and Jerry O'Connell in glorified cameos.

My wife & I got locked in a room in our house because the doorknob broke, so Kenny and Denise getting stuck in the bathroom rings true in one of the more effective sequences. But one character’s obsession with so-and-so’s ‘hotness’ is unhealthy and so her initial reaction to him is exactly what he needed, yet this is contradicted by the ending. It would’ve worked better if he ended up with so-and-so. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.

Still, the flick successfully brought up several real-life memories for my wife & me. For instance, someone revealing the crush they had on you during the school years but were too shy to tell you. So, there’s a lot of truth amidst the sophomoric happenings. It’s just not in the same league as “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Clueless” or even “Valley Girls,” “Just One of the Guys” and “Dazed and Confused.”

It runs 1h 40m and was shot in late 1997 in the Los Angeles area. The mansion unfortunately burned down in the Eaton Fire of January, 2025.

GRADE: B-/C+