80's Teen Movies :: the classic, the obscure & everything in between: How I Got Into College [1989]

"Keep reminding yourself.. It's only a movie!"

It's Marlon Browne's senior year at high school. Meaning he, along with the rest of his year group at Hunterwoods High have just had to endure the nail-biting compulsory ritual that is SAT's. Stress levels aren't dropping either, what with the even more gruelling process of deciding on and applying for college still to come.

Just as daunted by her future prospects is hardworking class president Jessica Kailo (Lara Flynn Boyle), who seems destined to take the all-American sorority girl route straight to Michigan, following in the footsteps of her three older sisters - the ones she doesn't particularly look up to. Michigan or not, wherever Jessica Kailo goes, a drooling Marlon Browne follows.

At the college fair, Marlon approaches Ramsey, a school that relies on kids with better-than-average test scores and more importantly, affluent backgrounds - the preppy; the snob; the smart-alec rich kid. Falling too-far short from the school's usual expectations, Marlon - who decides to apply solely to chase the lovely miss Kailo, girl of his dreams - enrolls with a 'college preparation service'. A dozen hundred dollar cheques later (and a few rather uninformative lessons on the art of guessing your difficult SAT questions), Marlon is all geared up for interview day.

Set on making a lasting impression on the Ramsey lot, Jessica - pondering over which shoes to wear - enters meltdown mode. What if being perfect just makes you average? What if all the extra-curricular experience under her belt is nothing in comparison to the few dozen patient hopefuls in the waiting room? And what if Ramsey just doesn't want her? And it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't, after her hellishly disastrous interview. (Fact 1: never, ever tear open your shirt when an interviewee asks "is there anything you'd like to reveal about yourself")

The application deadline day arrives and a confident Marlon is about to receive a big ol' shock. Catching wind of the news that his dream girl has had a change of heart about attending Michigan, he resorts to drastic measures to convince her otherwise. Will it be enough? After all, the deadline is only hours away and Ramsey a few hundred miles journey. And who's to say the both of them will be accepted?

Oh, and will Marlon's best mate finally get to live his lifelong dream of travelling the world with a carload of gorgeous gameshow hostesses?!

VERDICT: ★★★ ½

How I Got Into College is the last of Savage Steve Holland's directorial efforts of the '80s, and I guess you could say it is the least. Not because it sucks, but because it has never and will never be regarded as highly as the John Cusack comedies, One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead. And when I say it isn't regarded as highly, what I mean is: it's well and truly overlooked and those that haven't overlooked it seem to have chosen to simply hate on it in the biggest way imaginable. "But that is because Holland's earlier efforts are classics and miiiiles better than this!" I hear you scream. While you may be partially right, How I Got Into College deserves more than being shunned to one side to gather dust for twenty years.

What's so clever about this movie is that it manages to be both stupid but smart and horrendous but marvelous. It's an odd mix, but one that adds up to something worthwhile. And I love it. It keeps you grinning like a Cheshire cat and completely defines the term feel-good factor. Great too is the adorable Lara Flynn Boyle, parading around in her gnarly late eighties outfits - blazers with enormous shoulder pads - leaving her looking every bit the Heather. Without fail we are delivered a brief appearance by the one and only Curtis Armstrong - a Savage Steve Holland and general '80s movie regular - who raises the roof as an all-preaching ("last night, Jesus Christ appeared to me as a vision on a flaming pie") Bible College recruiter. And thankfully, oh so thankfully, the lead role is filled with Corey Parker's shoes and not John Cusack's. Don't get me wrong, Cusack was wonderful in the '80s (and still is now, of course) but it is refreshing to be able to associate a Savage Steve Holland teen comedy with an alternate lead actor who, while not in the same league as Cusack, is a pleasantly surprising substitute.

In short, How I Got Into College is a movie about growin' up. And if you resist from comparing it to or expecting Better Off Dead all over again, you will find an energetic little forgotten gem and maybe - just maybe - a keeper.

Did I mention Diane Franklin is in this?

IMAGES/VIDEOS: