Pie made of secret ingredients

Summer, winter, autumn, or spring, rain, snow, or scorching sun, it does not even matter, not even my age, so that I can immediately say which movie I want to watch, even though I have already seen it countless times, the first part and all its sequels with the original cast. American Pie, if anyone hasn't figured it out yet!

I know movies by heart - from the iconic scene of "sex" with a warm apple pie to the strange puberty behavior and hormones flying around. Although it is primarily about a group of guys who explore sex and make a pact to say goodbye to virginity before they go to college, their problems were close to me. If nothing else, it's good that I saw that it could have been even worse than it was. I watched movies with friends and also by myself. Even today, I often organize a marathon of the first three American Pies and Reunion, if I have time. 

My generation loved the movie. Not only the boys, but also the girls were attached to the screen. I also found like-minded people and companions among a few older individuals, not belonging to my generation. Just when I thought you couldn't go wrong with this franchise in any generation, I came across Generation Z, whose contemptuous attitude towards this film will never be clear to me.  

I recently read an interview from 2020 with some members of this generation who were watching American Pie, Dude, Where's My Car?, You Have No Idea, and The Best Team as teen movies from a different time. There seems to have been a lot of complaining about American Pie, though some have labeled the movie as amusing. Others were of the opposite opinion. The film seemed silly and disturbing to them because the main protagonists were "sexist losers who don't deserve women's attention". The main complaint was that the four guys in the lead roles only care about sex and are willing to do anything to get it. They also wonder what kind of attitude we had towards women in the world at the time the movie was made, and they quickly added that they are much better at it themselves.

Even more rigorous is the opinion of the girls of the Z generation. They are afraid that the movie encourages boys to harass girls and lets them know that everything is allowed for them. Although miraculously, they miss the scenes when the girls and women exploit some of the main protagonists. If Stifler shows a wilder boyish side, the other four —two eternal romantics, a nerd who Stifler overly bullies, and Jim, a prisoner of lust and society's expectations —are respectful, at least in my opinion. Jim was exploited by the horny band girl, Finch by a MILF, Stifler's mom. In addition, they forget that this is still a movie and it is seen, well, as a movie, not just as a reflection of the time in which it was created.

My otherwise rather despised, millennial generation loved the film because it cheerfully portrayed puberty problems, the era before social networks, and the mass-accessible Internet. We recognized ourselves in uncertainty, searching for answers to questions about sex, love, and growing up. Likewise, he did not focus on the glamour of teenage years, on the evil cheerleaders and good nerds who later won, but on ordinary individuals with problems. At that time, when watching movies, we did not wonder about the commentary of society within the movie. We just wanted to laugh at awkward situations without fear that someone had found a role model in one of the horniest protagonists of American Pie, and because of this, I will no longer be able to go for coffee safely. To achieve the moments of laughter, American Pie had to rely on a comedy of absurdity, and a topic such as teenage sex opened wide the door for them. 

I am a millennial and the most outstanding advocate of all American Pies, movies that make me blush, relax, and go to bed calm and relaxed. They are my time capsule, taking me back to a period I fondly remember as both fun and weird. My advice to Generation Z: don't look for deeper meanings, just lean back and enjoy. Or maybe the movie gives you an idea of how to try the pie in another way.