I sometimes forget how nice it is to be in college: half a decade or so of no consequences and a host of options based around desire rather than necessity.
It’s easy to lose sight of that sometimes. Easy indeed.
Often, it takes a movie like “Old School” to help me regain my perspective and tell myself, “Damn it, Johnny, look around. You’re not gonna see this much fun for the rest of your life, that’s for sure.”
In this film, all the wonderful college standards are represented: beautiful women, exorbitant amounts of alcohol, catchy pop soundtrack and house parties involving one or more of the aforementioned ingredients.
The plot involves Frank (Will Farrell), Bernard (Vince Vaughn) and Mitch (Luke Wilson) and the fraternity they start to escape their stale, depressing adult lives and relive their crazy collegiate past. The film centers around the illegitimate fraternity’s quest for “street cred” and its constant battle with Harrison University’s Dean Pritchert (“PCU”s Jeremy Piven) who constantly tries to expel it.
A more seasoned critic might say, “Fraternity starts — craziness ensues.”
But to put it in more familiar terms: “Old School” is like watching a highlight film from Four Kegs or East 13th Avenue during the first weeks of spring quarter — when the sun comes out, the weather turns and everyone seems glad to forget every good habit he or she learned during the winter. Except some of the participants are a little old.
Thus, there are those who will say it is simply a stupid college film. One critic said he gave the plot “negative points due to its shameful laziness in delivering a script that a group of real college kids could write over the course of an evening.” Then he wrote, “Every scene and character is merely a set-up for more pratfalls, sight gags and non-stop goofiness to evoke laughs and little else.”
Well, what is the hell is that supposed to mean? Aren’t students creative people? And what’s wrong with laughing?
However, the film does have one significant drawback. It wasn’t pushed far enough — what happened in the movie was too similar to what happens in actual life. As funny as the film was, it almost seemed a little tame, a little too realistic (except for the somewhat questionable legal issues).
Anyone in college or soon to be there — the obvious target audience — has most likely seen many of the film’s stunts, and anyone immersed in a healthy share of friendly decadence and delinquency may need something more.
Though how the envelope could have been pushed further is difficult to say, because what was there was really funny. Maybe it needed crazier stunts, or more consequence-free movie violence. Which brings up another interesting point about a film like this: “Old School” is a crowd movie. A movie about parties and adolescent stunt fantasies is a lot like a concert — the chemistry formed among movie-goers and with the film itself is crucial for the experience.
One other disclaimer is the characters are not well-developed — because they don’t need to be. What’s nice about a character who is not well-developed is that he — like those in the film — is interesting as soon as the film begins. The plot has holes, too, but no one can see them because of laughing too damn hard.
A film like “Old School” has a grace that is not dependent on many of the traditional, pretentious cinematic norms. As the college comedy becomes its own genre, the element of hilarity remains the only yardstick to judge it, and going by that, “Old School” has all the street cred it needs, as well as all the laughs.
