The Last American Virgin (1982): The 1980s sex comedy with a conscious

Nostalgia is a potent emotional state, as much as it can transport you back to your younger days it’s equally able to ask questions about what your younger self was thinking. This contrast defines everything about The Last American Virgin. Directed by Tel-Aviv-born Boaz Davidson, who had more success as an executive producer during the past few years than he did as a director of countless titles between the early 70s and late 90s. The Last American Virgin is one of his few directorial highlights.

Living under the shadow of classics like Animal House and Porky’s, Last American Virgin is a sex comedy that follows Gary (Lawrence Monoson), Rick (Steve Antin) and David (Joe Rubbo) as they try to get laid every night. The three move from skit to skit, with plenty of flesh on display and occasionally they get lucky with hilarious effects. Or so that’s the theory, the one thing Davidson’s film utterly fails in, is its comedic aspirations. From one gag to the next, it leaves much to be desired. No matter, as this is one of the countless films that teenage boys flocked to during the 80s to see some bare flesh. As a comedy, its jokes are all a means to a very specific end.

Then Karen (Diane Franklin) turns up causing one-sided friction between Gary (the quiet one), the friend who saw her first and instantly falls in love with, and Rick (the “ladies’ man”) who has Karen clambering all over him after one slow dance. On paper this doesn’t sound the most interesting of plot beats; nonetheless, it’s this aspect of the film that opens the door to the more interesting material in the third act. In which pregnancy and abortion come clattering into a film that had no interest in anything other than getting young bums into seats during a time when cinemas faced a huge looming threat from TV. That any such film has dramatic weight is beside the point.

For a film interested in little more than boys, boobs and booze, it’s an easy argument to make that the tonal whiplash is neither needed nor warranted. I could watch 100s of like-minded films and the most I could say about any of them is that ‘actor A’ looks young in that one, or that the soundtrack is good. This makes sense, these movies came out through a never-ending production line, and it is this that makes the last American virgin interesting to a first-time viewer divorced from nostalgia. Last American Virgin changes its tact from lust to consequences leading the film towards a brutally honest last moment that has rarely, if ever, been replicated since.

Films of this nature were about loose and easy girls and the boys chasing them, there was never any depth or emotion to the lion’s share of this type of 80s teen comedy. Davidson’s film is a rare film with awareness, whether or not it is well done is irrelevant – what is relevant is that the Last American Virgin tells of what happens when the desperate boy gets the promiscuous girl. A strangely conservative take, truth be told and reminds us of the theory that many slashers sought to punish people with similar loose morals, with the final girl being the sole virgin and wholesome girl.

That is all subtext, text is entirely more surface. As a new viewer, one observation is impossible to evade, The Last American Virgin is nothing without nostalgia. This film screams the 1980s from the rooftops. To compare it with a similarly retro film in Dazed & Confused, Linklater’s film may not be comic but it stands up today because it doesn’t commit itself to the era, it commits itself to the characters. The Last American Virgin, on the other hand, commits itself to the era through fashion & music. The latter has been billed as a big selling point for Davidson. Barely a second goes by where there isn’t a pop song playing in the background, lending an MTV aesthetic to every moment. This does highlight the amazing soundtrack, however, cinematically it’s like being prodded by the guy from the marketing department, telling us to look over here because you can also buy this great record.

For those that grew up with The Last American Virgin, it has never looked better and revisiting those old childhood friends will release all those glorious nostalgic endorphins. That soundtrack, too, plays like the perfect compilation of the late 70s and 80s; rose-tinted lenses have nothing to do with this – good pop music is good pop music. Without that nostalgia, there is little beyond that sobering finale for a new viewer. The Last American Virgin will not play well with the uninitiated – let’s be fair, this release isn’t for us: it is for those kids of the 1980s who grew up with Gary, Rick and David. Nostalgia is all some movies have. And sometimes it’s so obnoxiously over the top it drowns out other traits that could’ve cemented the film’s canon among classic 80s comedies, next to the Porkies and Animal House’s of the world.

Thanks for reading our review of The Last American Virgin

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