"Isn't this totally pleasant?"

Amy Heckerling returns to her roots with Loser

Though it suffers in comparison to her watershed film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and even to Clueless, director Amy Heckerling's latest, which she also scripted, is still far more watchable than the youthmarket fodder typically foisted by the genre's nondescript, sophomoric, usually male filmmakers. Jason Biggs (American Pie) stars as Paul, a bright, naive Midwesterner venturing to NYU on an academic scholarship. Armed only with floppy Fargo headgear, a Shemp Howard haircut, and his dad's (Dan Aykroyd) aphorism "interested is interesting," he assays Gotham in a maladroit fashion that gets him instantly ostracized from self-absorbed trendoid roommates. But his ingenuousness nets a friend in Dora (Mena Suvari, from A. Pie and, much more notably, American Beauty), whose struggle to afford tuition forces a string of lousy jobs and a diet heavy on free condiment packages of honey and non-dairy creamer. Her sweetness seems like a natural match for his affability, but she's already embroiled in a secret affair with their English professor (Greg Kinnear).

Unassuming, harmless, and reasonably smart, if saddled with a gratuitous appearance by Everclear (which is somewhat redeemed by use of Michael Penn's excellent "No Myth" in the closing credits), Loser is the antithesis of most prep/post-prep comedies. It's also somewhat bland and unambitious. But if you don't go in expecting Ridgemont U. (a couple Fast Times alumni do turn up in cameos), it's worth catching. C+

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