Cameron Crowe wrote this screenplay, based on his own novel. Despite the literary origins, the movie isn't much different from the conventional teen comedies from the eighties, but it's far funnier than most. I would call it one of the progenitors of movies such as There's Something About Mary: crude, crass, and vulgar, which would be somewhere between annoying and offensive if it weren't outright hilarious enough to compensate. Jennifer Jason Leigh provides a strong center to the film. Ray Walston and Vincent Schiavelli are scene stealers as two of Ridgemont High's teachers, but Sean Penn, as a surfer druggie dude, practically steals the whole movie.