Loser and Amy Heckerling's fall from grace

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083929/board/flat/233393106?p=1

I finally forced myself to get through the somewhat similar (certainly the basic story) Loser with Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari. Honestly the only compelling thing was seeing Oz's girl with another of the core 'Pie' posse, but it still played out very flat. Whereas this film has Sean Penn in a typically awesome performance, a nice cast in general and a tight script from the very talented Cameron Crowe. It also leaves the viewer wanting more - a sure sign that the brief window into the lives of the fictional characters was an effective one,

Loser despite having the same capable director might has well have been a mini series of 3 or 4 episodes as it barely held my attention at feature length. It's not as if having Heckerling taking on writing duties is an excuse - Clueless was supremely witty. Cameron Crowe's script for Fast times was a touch stronger than Clueless but I still always give the most credit or criticism to the director. Anyone able to explain this reversal in fortunes for Amy, and also why she has barely made anything of note in the last decade and a half.

http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/srl-the-case-of-the-disappearing-director.php

9. Amy Heckerling

Signature Movies: Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who’s Talking, Look Who’s Talking 2, European Vacation

Last Significant Work: Loser (2000)

What’s She Doing Now?: She made a movie a couple of years ago called I Could Never Be Your Woman with Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer that, ummm … it did well in Brazil. It went straight-to-DVD in America. No one saw it, and perhaps for the best, as it was awful. She is attempting another comeback with a female vampire romantic comedy, with Alicia Silverstone and Sigourney Weaver. It’s in pre-production; we’ll see if it makes it any further.

http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/ten-once-formidable-100-million-directors-who-are-now-scraping-the-bottom-of-the-hasbeen-barrel.php

Amy Heckerling: Amy Heckerling directed the starting point for a generation of brilliant high-school films, Fast Times at Ridgemont High before moving on to the stellar European Vacation. In 1989 and 1990, she hit a creative stumbling block, directing the successful but excruciating Look Who’s Talking films before bouncing back in 1996 with Clueless. Unfortunately, it was soon after that success that she crapped out, directing Night at the Roxbury, Loser, and most recently, the straight-to-DVD clunker, I Could Never Be Your Woman, with Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer. She does have another film in the works, Vamps, with Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter, but the movie (pictured below) seems unlikely to save her directing career.