It's been seven years since your high school graduation. Is your life "together"? Filmed in early 2007 (under working titles "Young Americans" and "Kids in America" after the respective David Bowie and Kim Wilde tunes) and shelved by Universal Studios due to uncertainty as to the marketing of a teen comedy with heavy drug use (in spite of the contemporary success of films like "Superbad" and the fact that this is not really aimed at teens at all but rather 20- and 30-somethings), the Rogue Pictures-acquired "Take Me Home Tonight" latches to the idea that our jobs define us. This is more or less fair, considering the in-between stages our primary characters find themselves in - peddling VHS tapes for minimum wage, let go from a job taken over college opportunities, etcetera - and the insulated and magnified drama of not just any party, but what is essentially a high school reunion attended by an old crush.
In the spirit of Richard Linklater's "Dazed & Confused" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti", "Take Me Home Tonight" is immersed in nostalgia for the iconic music and fashions of an era past, in this case the late 1980s (though a goulash of early '80s and even early '90s also shows face). Unlike last year's criminally referential "Easy A" it embodies the late '80s coming-of-age comedy, revering what may now be considered kitch without breaching overly-exploitative "Definitely, Maybe" territory. In this regard it falls in line perhaps the most with Nanette Burstein's "Going the Distance".
