American Pie (1999)

It’s hard to understand in 2026, but when American Pie was released in 1999, it was actually considered a fresh take on the teen sex comedy. It also launched the gross-out comedy era. It was a massive hit, making over $200 million, and becoming the top topic of conversation among college men and high school boys. It’s also a movie, and hopefully you are sitting down for this one, that gave sexual agency to the girls in it, something teen movies were not exactly doing in the 80s. The young cast of the time was loaded with big names of the era with Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Alyson Hannigan, and Thomas Ian Nicholas. Plus, a great turn by Eugene Levy. American Pie has a message, but all the sequels diluted it. It tries to tell a story about that last year in high school, where you are trying to navigate becoming an adult while dealing with still being a child, and knowing you are likely seeing those friends and lovers in high school for the last time before all of you go off to lives without them. If you can get past the baggage of the sequels, and try to view American Pie as a relic of 1999, you might even find it a bittersweet reminder of being young.