On Encino Man...Not Exactly A Serious Piece - Written 082424

I have seen many great films in my time, but the greatest was one I first saw as a child. It changed my life, and it showed me what movies could truly be. If it weren't for this picture I don't know if I could have ever known true joy or survived the difficult struggles I've experienced in life. This movie is one which should be at the top of every film list and on the lips of every serious cinephile.

The film to which I am referring is, of course, the 1992 masterwork and enduring classic, Encino Man.

The film stars an energetic Sean Astin, a spectacularly weasel-like Pauly Shore, and the legendary Brendan Fraser. It is set amidst the backdrop of an early 1990's Encino, CA, which some scholarly individuals might say is the jewel of the San Fernando Valley.

The film tackles the struggles of two normal, somewhat outsider high school boys who are grappling with the fast approaching end of their high school careers. There is a sense of existential dread in this and a longing for more than what they've known thus far in life. 

While digging a pool in his backyard, a project he hopes will score him some kind of notoriety in the twilight of his high school experience, Sean Astin's character Dave accidentally unearths a large section of underground ice. Aided by Shore's character Stoney, Dave's best friend, the pair is able to completely extract this discovery and set it to melt in a shed on Dave's family's property. After a difficult day at school, during which the boys confront bullies and Dave's hard longing for more from the scholarly microcosm in which he's derived so much of his personal meaning, they discover that not only has the ice melted but from it has sprung a filthy, wild Brendan Fraser caveman, whom they eventually christen Link.

Together with their prehistoric companion, Dave and Stoney go on many adventures, develop some confidence, and finally begin to pursue the social activities preferred by the people of their class. Link acts as a lure for the popularity after which Dave so sorely sought, and with his skills in condiment art and Rad Mobile along with his successful adoption of Stoney's philosophy of "Nugs, Chillin, and Grindage," Link goes on to become the beacon of cool that Dave wished he could be.

The film also goes through and deals with Dave's jealousy, a cultural exchange at a dance club, traffic safety violations, Dave's crush Robin being interested in Link, convenience store dietary instruction, theme park montages, a sinister DeLuise, the criminal justice system, dog wrestling, women, high school hierarchies, and culminates in a high school dance where Link and his pals teach their classmates to, "Feed the monkey."

At the very end, beside Dave's crude pool, he finally connects with Robin, and inside the house Link makes the discovery that his, "Cave Nug," portrayed by actress Sandra Hess, has escaped an undiscovered chunk of ice and is bathing away the grime of millennia. Stoney, not really finding any resolution as a character who was just along for the ride, presumably fades into the background and most likely goes off to college to become the protagonist of the lesser motion picture Son In Law.

In case you couldn't derive this fact from the above, Encino Man is a treasure of a cinematic experience. It's fun for the whole family and a nostalgic treasure for those wonderful and hopelessly lost refugees from the glorious 1990's. 

Find a copy and watch it today. You won't be sorry you did!