American Reunion

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg’s 2012 film brings the East Great Falls friends back to town for their high school reunion. The shape is a weekend rather than a plot. It moves from set piece to set piece, and Hurwitz has said the job with that many strands is packing them into one movie. The old cast returns with wives and girlfriends attached, so the character count roughly doubles and nobody holds the floor for long. Rounding up the cast came before the writing. Schlossberg says they sat down with most of the actors before the script existed, telling them where they saw each one. Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott were given producer credits and helped talk the rest into returning. It was not shot in Michigan. Filming ran around Atlanta in the summer of 2011, with Mary Alice Park on Lake Lanier standing in for the Lake Michigan shore. For the series it was a return to cinemas nine years on, four direct to video American Pie Presents films in between. Abroad it took close to 178 million dollars while North America stayed under 60 million. A good fit if you accept a dozen strands sharing the time, none of them deepened. Not for you if you expect Jim and Michelle’s marriage at the centre.