- Title: Can’t Hardly Wait
- IMDb: link
1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait is more charming than it has any right to be. Filled with a number of young actors, several of whom would go on to have success in Hollywood in the years to come, Ethan Embry plays all-around good guy Preston Meyers who at the graduation party plans to proclaim his love to recently dumped it girl Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt) who he’s been crushing on since Freshman year. Meanwhile, Amanda is attempting to discover who she is outside of being Mike Dexter’s (Peter Facinelli) ex-girlfriend.
Various other stories intertwine at the party including William (Charlie Korsmo) who plans on exacting his revenge against Mike for bullying him, and Preston’s best friend Denise (Lauren Ambrose) ends up accidentally locked in a bathroom with would-be Lothario Kenny (Seth Green) hoping to lose his virginity before leaving for college.
Although the film doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises, with the stories concluding as you would expect, the ride turns out to be enjoyable regardless on the obviousness of our destination. And the film is far sweeter than you would expect, most notably in Embry’s performance, but it does also bleed through to the other storylines as well. Other notable faces pop up from time to time including Jenna Elfman (with her Scott Baio story) and Jerry O’Connell as older voices of reason each playing a pivotal role in separate plots, and, in smaller roles, Melissa Joan Hart, Amber Benson, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Jaime Pressly, Jason Segel, and Sara Rue. And the 90s itself should also get a credit with both the film’s soundtrack and fashion practically dripping 9os style from beginning to end.
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