K-SCORE: 76
Writer / Director: Jon Kasdan
Starring: Britt Robertson, Dylan O’Brien, Craig Roberts, Joshua Molina, Christina Taylor, LaMarcus Tinker, James Frecheville
Spoiler Level: Moderate
As far as romances starring young people go, The First Time is unusually honest. Many films in the genre will make a number of mistakes that create a completely ridiculous impression of high school and the relationships of teenagers. Some portrayals absurdly paint a picture whereby these juniors and seniors are hyper dramatic and deeply invested in their school’s culture, their lives on narrative tracks linked to the ebb and flow of the academic calendar, whereby relationship deadlines and class deadlines are one and the same. Such films often have proms at the end with unexpected kings and queens and dumb speeches, poorly delivered in front of an audience of irrationally invested classmates. Other times films shine a light on the seedy nightlife of youth, where parents are constantly going out of town for a weekend, leaving an endless supply of alcohol, a well-lit outdoor pool, and a sign that reads: you don’t need your swimsuit. My personal least favorite are those films that attempt to capture the troubled yet altruistic, impressionable yet reserved, and secretly academically reverent persona of kids, devoted to their coursework and their teachers in a way and to a degree that is cringy. The First Time doesn’t do any of that. It’s just a tiny story about two kids that fall for each other over a weekend right at the time they both are looking to lose their virginity.
“first sexual experience... a beautifully weird wreck of skilless passion - amazing”
The movie isn’t very funny and it’s not very interesting. The characters have a dynamic that didn’t make me hate them, but I didn’t really want to hang out with them either. I couldn’t quite tell whether their banter was actually charming and supporting the idea that their connection was real or whether it’s just cute because they’re young and into each other. Either way, the choice to make their first sexual experience a beautifully weird wreck of skilless passion is, amazingly, not one I’ve really seen before. Kasdan kind of chickened out on the moment itself, especially considering the title of the film, but his thesis is good. Especially after having watched all 900 hours of the rape culture of 13 Reasons Why, this is a refreshing take on the issue of teenagers having sex. And much as I can’t credit the film for being exceptional in any category, it does have moments that have really stuck with me. For one, when the female lead Aubrey talks about her virginity as not something sacred she needs to guard, half-knowing her first experience won’t be the earth-shattering thing that it’s built up to be. That’s a healthy outlook that made me like her more. And better than that is when the character Big Corporation finally says something and it’s just to tell his friend that finding a girl that he likes and who likes him back is rare enough that he should have the courage to fight for them. Beautiful. His monologue has been spinning in my head for days.
Yet The First Time also bums me out. If this film avoided all of those pitfalls that make for unrealistic depictions of a person’s upbringing, it should be great by default, right? But it’s not great. It’s honest and, at times, lovable, but mostly unenthusiastic, slow-paced, and devoid of ambition. If the secret reason that I watch movies like this at all is that I’m searching for a recapture or a resolution to issues I experienced in my time as a late teen, and I can’t quite find it here, will I ever? Can such a story even be told? Is it possible to keep an audience entertained while describing a high school where parties are uncomfortable places with really cheap beer and a lot sitting around watching movies we thought were cool or heady like Fight Club, The Matrix, or Magnolia? Is it possible to keep audiences entertained when most school days were boring affairs filled with miserable people, students and faculty alike, trying to survive an onslaught of tests and papers, and every once and a while weakly throwing out a half-baked political agenda? Is it possible to keep people entertained when romances aren’t developed through drunken hookups or slow dances at formals, but rather just sitting in a theater dressing room sharing a piece of chocolate cake? I guess a story doesn’t have to be realistic to capture the spirit of those things. If anyone finds such a story, please let me know, and I’ll get to work trying to write one. In the meantime, enjoy The First Time, which is fine, but so small in scope it got stepped on and overlooked by audiences and critics alike.