Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982 Amy Heckerling)

Somewhat crudely made but well written, accurately catching teenage behaviour (shallowness of girls, dismissive behaviour of guys). To get the inside story, Cameron went 'back to school ' for a year before writing the book version. Scorchingly honest, it isn't your average teen movie at all.

In writing “Fast Times At Ridgemont High,” Crowe says, “it was my intention to write of the entire business (of day-to-day high school life) – from academic competition to the sexual blunders – of teenage adulthood. I did not want to become yet another adult writing about adolescence and ‘the kids’ from an adult perspective. This story, I felt, belonged to the kids themselves.”

Photographer Matt Leonetti also made Breaking Away.

Cast: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, Ray Walston (then 68), Forest Whitaker, Vincent Schiavelli, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas 'Coppola', Anthony Edwards.

20th anniversary reunion (not actually all in room at same time!)

Backer and Leigh