SCREWBALLS

SCREWBALLS: It must have really irked Roger Corman to see Porkys rake in so much money from a genre that he essentially pioneered. His cinematic response was Screwballs, more of a teen-flick satire than a straight-up sex comedy, that comes highly endorsed from none other than “Mr. Skin,” the popular movie nudity resource index. The students at T & A High School are all ridiculously promiscuous except for one Purity Busch (Linda Speciale) – the untouchable tease who becomes the object of everyone’s special attention. Five mismatched horndogs bet each other they can get a glimpse of her goods and stage five different plans of attack. While most of the other films released around 1983 were variations on the coming-of-age story, Screwballs doesn’t even bother. It embraces the corny stereotypes (nerd, jock, rich-kid, etc.) without apology and invites everyone to a rowdy, raunchy kegger of a B-movie. Director Rafal Zielinski claims to have been inspired by the old-school Archie comic books, but I don’t think Veronica ever deep-throated a breakfast sausage! Screwballs has one heck of a potty mouth, but for all the raging hormones on display it’s never outright offensive. In fact, the script avoids most of the mean-spirited hijinks that marked other movies of the era. Hearkening back to his own over-the-top ‘70s fare like Rock’n Roll High School for inspiration, this is Corman’s feel good, feel-up teen flick. Severin gets extra credit for the extras, with a commentary, deleted scenes (inexplicably presented in Spanish) and several interviews including screenwriters Jim Wynorski and Linda Shayne who provide great insight into the Corman movie machine.