My Favorite Movie of 2002: Orange County

A film very much featuring the next generation of Hollywood, Orange County stars Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks), Jack Black (still only recently coming off his breakthrough performance in High Fidelity) and Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek) and directed by Jake Kasdan (son of Lawrence Kasdan). Orange County isn't the greatest film in the world, but 2002 in general was a pretty shitty year in movies. The 2nd best movie I saw that year was Minority Report and that isn't saying a lot. Much of 2002 in American cinema was spent getting people's minds off of 9/11 and aiming for either extremely silly comedy or high-octane action. That's why my favorite movie that year was neither, just a simple film that could take place in any year and continues to be relevant.

Shaun Brumder starts off as a typical surfer kid in Orange County, California, not interested in school and leading a carefree life of partying, drinking, and surfing with his friends. After his friend Lonny dies in a surfing accident, Shaun begins to rethink his life until he finds a novel on the beach written by Marcus Skinner. Skinner's novel intrigues Shaun to the point that he is inspired to be a writer and investigate where Skinner is today. After learning that Skinner is a professor at Stanford University, he makes it his goal to become a student at Stanford and eventually have Skinner as his teacher, mostly to escape the realization that he has been living a vapid existence in Orange County and is surrounded by equally superficial people.

One year later, Shaun has become the class president, improved his grades, and scored high enough on the SAT to become a legitimate candidate for being accepted by Stanford. After some terrible advice from his guidance counselor, Shaun decides to only apply to Stanford, but it doesn't matter because his transcript is mixed up with another student's, an extreme underachiever. After his guidance counselor refuses to admit she made a mistake, Shaun's girlfriend Ashley tells him that her friend's father is an administrator at Stanford and has already agreed to see Shaun at his house for an interview. Knowing that his father's house will be a nightmare, he decides to have the interview conducted at his mother's house where he thinks he can successfully hide his alcoholic mother, his drug-addict brother, and his catatonic stepfather. The interview ends up being a disaster as his mother is already drunk when he arrives and his brother, Lance, is desperately searching the house in his underwear for the urine sample he took earlier because his probation officer is meeting with him later. Shaun then pleads with his wealthy father to donate money to Stanford to increase his chances of getting accepted. His father absolutely will not comply because he believes that his dream of being a writer is foolish and he should go into a more stable career path, like business.

Ashley and Lance plead Shaun to go to Palo Alto as a last ditch effort and meet in person with the Stanford admissions director to explain his situation, hoping that the whole predicament will be solved. After the 6+ hour road trip, Lance breaks into the Stanford main office and seduces the secretary while Shaun and Ashley find the admissions director's home address. Although reluctant to accept his transcript so late in acceptance process, the director agrees to an interview based on how stellar Shaun's transcript is and how nice he is. During the interview, the director needs an aspirin and Ashley accidentally gives him LSD from Lance's belongings. Knowing how futile the interview will be with the dean high, Ashley and Shaun leave. Upset at what is most likely his last chance being lost, Ashley reminds Shaun that he is being very selfish in wanting to go to Stanford since if he goes there it will also mean the end of their relationship. Ashley leaves to find Lance while Shaun decides to wander the campus, knowing it will probably be the last time he sees it.

Hanks and Fisk not only look like their famous parents, but their acting is just as good.

Shaun stumbles upon a frat party and decides to check it out, wondering what a college party with intelligent people will be like. He ends up extremely disappointed that the girls at the party are just as vapid, shallow, and superficial as the girls in Orange County. Now cynical about college and the entire trip up north, Shaun by chance runs into Marcus Skinner. Skinner is excited to meet with his fan and notes that he received Shaun's short story about his personal life, saying that he already has the beginnings of a great writer. Skinner tells Shaun that he doesn't need a high intellect environment for inspiration, naming off a few writers who shared Shaun's background of growing up among shallow people. Now believing that just maybe, his background will help his writing rather than hindering it, Shaun decides to go back home with renewed confidence.

Once Shaun, Lance, and Ashley get back home, they find that Shaun and Lance's parents have decided to get back together and to donate the money for a new building at Stanford, hoping it will get Shaun accepted. Ecstatic at this news at first, Shaun sees Ashley's reaction to the news and says there's no need to donate money to the school since he's decided to stay in Orange County. The movie ends with Shaun going surfing with his friends for the first time since Lonny's death.

Like I said before, Orange County was made right on the heels of 9/11 and is one of the few films from 2002 that is not overly cheerful, grim, or action-packed. What makes the movie stand out beyond that is just how relevant the movie remains and hopefully will continue to be relevant in the future. Next week it's time to get really crude with 2003's best: Bad Santa.