"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.
