LOSER
SYNOPSIS:
When down-home farm boy Paul Tanner (Jason Biggs) wins a scholarship to a New York
university, his father (Dan Ackroyd) is ecstatic. But Paul soon finds that life as a
student in the Big Apple isn’t all he imagined. His bookish ways don’t sit well
with his rich brat roommates and he has trouble making friends. Then he meets Dora (Mena
Suvari) an offbeat student with money problems, and falls for her instantly. The only
problem is she only has eyes for her English lit teacher Professor Alcott (Greg Kinnear).
When Paul is kicked out of his dorm and Dora loses her job at a strip club, things
aren’t looking bright for either of them.
"Amy Heckerling's way of making a film is to skim across the surface of a story
and a world, using pop songs as bridges between brief, fragmentary scenes: much of our
knowledge of the characters is gained through passing glimpses of their hairstyles,
clothes and tastes in entertainment. This fast, light manner was perfectly in sync with
the giddy teenage airheads of Clueless, one of the great films of the '90s (still as
blissfully funny on video five years later). It works much less well in her new film
Loser, a brave but scrappy mix of emotional rawness and airy whimsy. Genuinely painful
scenes of humiliation and poverty jostle for space with TV-star cameos and relentless
pop-culture references; the somewhat careless storytelling never manages to knit these
elements into a cohesive whole. If anything anchors the movie, it's Jason Biggs, who's
ideally cast as the charming, brashly innocent Paul. Part of the film's point is that Paul
doesn't see himself as a loser in the first place: he's always been a popular guy in his
home town, and he never stops trying to be nice to people and assuming they'll like him.
As he gradually wakes up to himself, he doesn't lose his eagerness to please - but that
puppy-dog grin starts to imply as well a good-natured self-mockery, an amusement at being
so hopelessly uncool. One of Heckerling's strengths is this kind of small-scale work with
actors: details of sensibility and personal style, moments when characters start to play
round with their image or parody themselves. It's puzzling that she hasn't brought a
similarly deft, nuanced touch to those aspects of the film (such as the pat moralising)
which are comparatively dumb and routine. Still, despite the flaws there are many moments
here to treasure."
Jake Wilson
"Amy Heckerling has to be one of America’s most subversive filmmakers. Having
directed two of the most intelligent teen movies ever in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and
Clueless, she returns to the genre again with Loser. While there’s a temptation to
write this film off as yet another teen romance, there’s a lot going on just below
the surface of Loser. Poverty, social disadvantage, substance abuse, date rape and
corruption all feature in the plot; and are dealt with in quite a surprisingly subtle way.
The central character, Paul (the "loser" of the title) is actually a winner in
many ways; while those who seek to denigrate him are shown to be the true losers. Even
Dora, played with a combination of wide-eyed innocence and worldly cynicism by Mena
Suvari, who appears to be "cool" is pretty much a loser, caught in a situation
not entirely of her own making. Jason Biggs backs up from American Pie with a solid
performance in a role which offers him more depth than the earlier film. But the standout
in the cast is Greg Kinnear as the erudite but sycophantic Professor Alcott. Whenever
he’s on screen, he commands attention and his presence really pulls the film
together. Watch out also for cameos from the likes of Steven Wright and David Spade. Loser
is rather contrived at times (particularly in the weak ending) and doesn’t push the
boundaries of the teen flick in the way Clueless did. But its heart is in the right place
and if you’re prepared to give something back to it, you may well find Loser an
unexpectedly welcome little film."
David Edwards
"How can we forget Jason Biggs, the pie-raping teenager in his first film,
American Pie? He graduates to college in Loser, and confirms he’s about as sweet and
wholesome as apple pie; a trustworthy face, simple features, and big puppy-dog eyes. It
makes one wonder if his casting here - as a country-bumpkin struggling in a hip city - is
just. How will audiences believe this kid would have trouble making friends anywhere -
even girlfriends? The star of a movie about a goofball who’s the butt of
everyone’s jokes should surely be a strange-looking dork - like the skinny kid in
Road Trip or Eddie Murphy’s alter-ego in Bowfinger – and not a looker who shot
to stardom in last year’s blockbuster comedy. A goofball would give the
"loser" tag a little more credibility. Besides, this is the movies - goofballs
rarely have American beauties like Mena Suvari falling for them. That’s the inherent
problem with Loser; it’s a light-hearted, good-natured romantic comedy, but it fails
to connect the dots. Biggs is just too likeable and energetic to be an authentic loser.
The only real character trait that makes him "different" is his back-woods
clothing. In fact, his abhorrent roommates come off bigger losers than he – with
their try-hard fashions, hip-hop language, and fake tans. Suvari is every bit the beauty
she was in American Pie and American Beauty, and the trust in her boyfriend professor
– who treats her subserviently - proves as misplaced as Biggs’ trust in his
roommates. It’s just a matter for the two misfits to find each other, and that’s
about all we’re waiting for in Loser. It’s as lightweight on narrative and style
as it is on humour. However, the chemistry between Biggs and Suvari is charming, and the
performances are heart-warming enough to win us over. But in the face of the much funnier
Road Trip and the quirkier High Fidelity, Loser, like its central character, will likely
be lost in the crowd."
Shannon J. Harvey
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CRITICAL COUNT
Favourable: 0
Unfavourable: 0
Mixed: 3


LOSER (M)
(US)
CAST: Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Zak Orth, Thomas Sadoski, Jimmi Simpson, Greg Kinnear,
Dan Aykroyd
DIRECTOR: Amy Heckerling
PRODUCER: Amy Heckerling, Twink Caplan
SCRIPT: Amy Heckerling
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rob Hahn
EDITOR: Debra Chiate
MUSIC: David Kitay
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Steven J. Jordan
RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia TriStar
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: August 17, 2000
VIDEO RELEASE: January 4, 2001
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia TriStar Home Video
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