The First Time

A movie about a college boy who learns tricks of the trade about accepting love isn't what I had in mind. It's hard to decide on calling this either a teen comedy, a school play, a boy-meets-girl satire, or a hodgepodge of weird film shorts. Or all of the above! Personally, the movie has a hard time at what it really stands for. Nothing is problematic at low production values and fair acting as intended, but there is a touch of immediate diversion missing. If you were to call it an amusing satire on the sexual revolution, then it would be the correct dominant choice to take. It is funny on occasion, and has some delightful moments. Take a chance at THE FIRST TIME, but use with caution. For its odd sophistication, a heavy dose of unintentional laughs won't fill your prescription.

I caught this on cable back in the late 1980s. I was tired after studying for exams all day and thought that a silly sex comedy would be just what I needed to unwind. After about 30 minutes of this I was actually considering of going back to studying! It would have been a lot less painful than this:) Boring "comedy" of an obnoxious college student (played by an actor who was 29 at the time--and looked it) joining a film class and falling for the wrong girl while totally ignoring the sweet nice girl who's truly in love with him. The plot is old hat but it could have worked if they had a fresh take or spin on it. Unfortunately they didn't. The acting is OK but the jokes are lame and the plot is VERY predictable. If you're hoping for nudity of sex forget it. There's none here. No sex, nudity or laughs. Skip it.

Yet another low-budget teenage angst flick. Made in '82 and distributed on tape as _Doin' It_, and re-released by New Line with a '97 copyright. Dull, unbelievable characters. The fictional "Blossom College" isn't believable, either. The attempted comic relief of the pretentious film teacher with his conceptual art shorts isn't funny. Offensive racial stereotype of the black playboy roommate. Zero titillation value. See _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ instead.

"The First Time", lensed in 1980 as "Goldmine", is a mild but entertaining first feature by writer-director Charlie Loventhal and producer Sam Irvin, former assistants to Brian De Palma on his 1979 indie picture "Home Movies". Dealing fictionally with Loventhal's growing-up adventures while a student at a formerly all-girls school Sarah Lawrence, the comedy owes much to De Palma's freewheeling satires made in the 1960s. Pic has already played in the sticks and (following a recent trend) had cable-tv exposure prior to its Gotham theatrical debut.

Charlie (Tim Choate) is an odd-man-out at college: unable to score with the pretty (but believably so) girls there while his black roommate Ronald (Raymond Patterson) shows off and gives him tips. In his film class, presided over by eccentric, pretentious Prof. Goldfarb (Wallace Shawn), he wants to make comedies, while his classmates are strictly into experimental, avant-garde exercises.

While pursuing an unattainable dream girl (Krista Errickson), Charlie links up with another lonely soul Wendy (Wendy Fulton), and ultimately loses his virginity with the inevitable older woman Karen (Jane Badler) in an unsuccessful subplot of rather sinister implications.

Filmmaker Loventhal achieves a nice balance of character humo and painful "outsider" undertones in the picture, which is somewhat out of step with the raunchy youth hi-jinks currently in vogue. Film-within-a-film motif of the hero's making a James Bond spoof is an effective device.

Top-notch cast delivers solidly. Choate is very sympathetic in the lead role, matched by the sex appeal of Errickson, naturalism of Fulton and comedy sex-bomb Wendy Jo Sperber. Shawn's pretentious film prof and Marshall Efron's know-it-all psych prof are delightful revue-style turns. Tech credits are good, with Steve Fierberg's cheery, colorful 16mm lensing blowing up well to 35mm.

My review was written in June 1983 after a showing at a TImes Square screening room.