The many faces of Sean Penn

“Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982)

Penn the Stoner: 25 years after playing Jeff Spicoli in “Fast Times,” Penn would direct “Into the Wild,” and in both films we see Penn’s penchant for anti-establishment teenagers, fed up with the money-above-all concerns of the adult world. In “Ridgemont High,” surfer dude Spicoli was laziness incarnate, a full-time slacker whose motto became a mantra for a generation of couch surfers: “All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine.”