Naive provincial young man coming to face challenges of a big city is archetypal situation used in the opening of Loser, 2000 romantic comedy written and directed by Amy Heckerling. Protagonist, played by Jason Biggs, is Paul Tanneck, freshman at New York University who got accepted on academic scholarship. He came there trying to adhere to father’s advice to be treat everyone friendly. But such altruistic attitude tend to be counterproductive in the vicious social-Darwinistic world of New York academia so Paul soon earns the reputation of “loser” by his classmates. His three room mates – Adam (played by Zak Orth), Chris (played by Tom Sadoski) and Noah (played by Jimmi Simpson) – chase him from their room and force him to sleep in veterinarian hospital. In the meantime Paul has fallen in love with his beautiful classmate Dora Diamond (played by Mena Suvari), unaware that she has problems of her own, being forced to make ends meet by working as a waitress in strip bar while having romantic relationship with her English professor Edward Alcott (played by Greg Kinnear) who ruthlessly exploits her.
Director Amy Heckerling is specialised in comedies and is best known for Look Who’s Talking. Her feature debut Fast Times at Ridgmenot High was set in high school, which is a milieu she has returned in 1995 with Clueless. Five years later with Loser she has set her sights at the world of higher education and again shown ability to mix light-hearted entertainment with some keen social observation. Characters of this film seem much more real than in most Hollywood films of the same genre, while Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari appear to have much better material to work on and deliver better performances than in American Pie or American Beauty. Even the film’s main villain, played by Greg Kinnear, seems more complex and convincing. Heckerling’s slightly more serious approach, however, is still compromised by slavish following of Hollywood conventions that require obligatory happy ending and predictable romantic subplot. On the other hand, those viewers who expect raunchiness of American Pie are going to be disappointed, but Heckerling, who was forced to conform to PG-13 rating, slightly compensates lack of “interesting” details with superb direction and gives Loser slightly anachronistic charm. In the end, Heckerling’s film isn’t especially good or groundbreaking but it could still be recommended to audience that want light entertainment that doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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