He gets caught jerking off moments later by her in the bathroom, and I'm sure he wasn't the only one. I caught the film everytime it played on cable through the '80s, just to see this vision of high-school-age loveliness from Phoebe. She haunted my sex dreams for a decade, and I've probably spilled a pint of semen over her. I can't hear "Moving In Stereo" without thinking of her open arms, her red bikini, and those flowers with the sprinkler spray in the background.
Her sexual persona in the film was a cross between innocence and knowing, while Jennifer Jason Leigh's (who would become a sexual fantasy as well) was troubled and tawdry in its desperation. "Fast Times..." defined a certain kind of teen comedy in which the treatment of sex was open, but, if you remember, deadly serious when people got down to "moving in stereo." In a way it was much more effective than the pie-fights we get nowadays.
The casual sex talk between girls about sex (compared to the empty bragging of the boys) all tinged with anxiety was a revelation to my hormones. So was that bathing suit with the flat front panel.
Kevin Kline married Phoebe Cates in the late '80s and I consider him one lucky bastard. She hasn't been in many movies since her initial rush of stardom (I sat through "Private School" twice for her). But what I remember still continues to inspire. And while the boobs and the music are all great, it's that smile that completes the package.
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