There is an old, time honored saying that you can’t go home again. No matter how the past treated you there is no returning to it. Still, it is only part of human nature to give it a try anyway. Because this is such a fundamental aspect of humanity it is only natural that every generation or so a film pops up that deals with our collective need to revisit our youth. In the eighties it was ‘The Big Chill’ that focused on a group of friends uniting for a funeral. Now, there is a film for the people who were busy being born around the time that film was released, ‘The Lather Effect’. It uses another American tradition, the high school reunion as its plot device to pull old friends together. I have to admit that at first I thought this would be at best a bit humorous but ultimately no better than the ‘I Love the Eighties’ segments that run repeatedly on the VH1 cable station. It only took a few minutes of watching to realize that I was pleasantly wrong with that opinion. This is a witty and very funny look at the decades and the people who grew up in that decade. Even for those of us who were already married with children at the time it is fresh, well written, directed and acted to near perfection.

Directing and writing this movie is Sarah Kelly. For the script aspect of the production she was joined by Tim Talbott. While Kelly is a first time script writer here Talbot has been busy as a staff writer for the television animated phenomena, ‘South Park’. He experience in cutting edge comedy is evident here as well as the ability to slam out intelligently written one-liners. This pair of writers captures more than just the superficial elements of the decade, they revisit them with a keen eye that enables them to look back and laugh. According to an interview the idea came to Kelly when she threw a themed party called ‘Come as you were’ focused on the eighties. This script was a natural extension and in some ways a dress rehearsal for the story. No matter how she came up with the idea it worked out very well. It seems that every generation is of the belief that they grew up in the best decade possible. For those of us who are part of the baby boomer group there can never be a time better than the late sixties to early seventies. This story shows an important fact. There may be changes in fashion, music and the preferred snakes but every generation has the same archetype characters and almost identical dilemmas that the youth has to face. This script takes those standard characters and manages to flesh them out; developing them into people that we all knew, or perhaps, were. There is honesty in this story that makes the comedy possible. You will sit there laughing partly because of the innate humor of the situations depicted but mostly because you understand and identify with the characters.

Kelly has only one other directorial credit to her name, ‘Full Tilt Boogie’, a documentary about the making of the Robert Rodriguez classic horror flick, ‘From Dusk to Dawn’. That flick was made over a decade ago but it is obvious that Ms Kelly has been somewhere honing her craft. According to her credit list she has been working as a production assistant on films including ‘Pulp Fiction’. She must have been paying attention because her direction here is impeccable. She starts off with the well used device of showing the morning after the wild night before. The bulk of the film is flashbacks to the crazy night. She nicely balances the wild antics with some heartfelt insight into the personal fears and trepidations of the characters. It is this approach that enables her to reach across all of the generations with this film. The details are specific to the eighties but not the emotional conflicts encountered by the characters. There is a tendency for some of the slower, more emotional scenes to come across as derivative, even forced. Mostly this seems to be more due to the juxtaposition of these slower paced scenes with the faster moving comedy portions. Kelly has a natural flair for getting the best possible performance out of her cast. She appears to have guided them more that pushing her direction on them. This resulted in a film that has energy and vitality that is infectious.

The film opens to a phone ringing. There is no one home to answer and as the camera pulls back we see a house that is festooned with toilet paper, looking like some wild frat party was held there. The inside of the house looks even worse and in one wrecked bedroom someone stirs from under the covers. The voice on the telephone speaks about the house being up for sale and making sure it is in shape to show to the buyers. The camera roams around the house showing several unconscious people, beer bottles and cans everywhere and several well used make shift bongs and mirrors with the remnants of cocaine lying about. The first to awaken is Valinda (Connie Britton) who explains to a voice on the phone that she is not avoiding reality just postponing it. Her parents are selling the home she grew up in so Valinda decided to throw one last eighties style rave with her old friends to say goodbye to her old house. By the looks of the place the resulting party was epic. Switching between real time and flashbacks the people attending the party are introduced. Will (Tate Donovan), is the responsible husband of Valinda. It is up to him to clean up most of the mess created by the rave. Claire (Sarah Clarke) was one of Valinda’s best friends in high school and now lives in Ohio with her husband and children. This was her last chance to revisit her youth and cut loose. Mickey (Eric Stoltz) is the perennial bad boy He was the toughest kid in school and now still has that looser air that surrounds him. Katrina (Caitlin Keats) is now a successful doctor but is unable to make a relationship work. Her personal life is an endless string of one night stands. Corey (David Herman) had briefly made it big as a child actor. Now, he is unable to find work in that field and is condemned to yearning for his lost glory days. Jack (William Mapother), formerly the most popular guy in school and still has a torch burning for Valinda even though he is married and has kids with Zoey (Ione Skye).

One of the great things about this cast is the actors that helped create the decade under scrutiny here. Eric Stoltz was in such eighties classis as ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’

While Ione Skye became famous for being the girl who received a boom box serenade from John Cusack in ‘Say Anything’. This is an ensemble cast that is amazing together. Anchor Bay has gone all out with the DVD release of this film; the disc even looks like a miniature vinyl record album, nice touch. The video is in a crisp, clear anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer. The Dolby 5.1 audio lets you enjoy the eighties music like you never have before. There are also some great extras just for fun. There is a commentary track with Kelly, film editor Darren Ayres and Stoltz who also produced the film. There is a better than usual making of featurette and some deleted scenes included. Two really novel featurettes are ‘The Cameron Effect’ and ‘The Importance of being an Earnest PA’. This first is a bit of a love letter from Kelly to director Cameron Crowe. He was influential in Kelly placing such importance on the musical choices for the film. The later looks at the unsung contribution to a film by the lowly production assistant. This is just a fun film that you will enjoy every time you watch.