Orange County (DVD, 2002, Sensormatic)

ORANGE COUNTY is a teen comedy that, along with goofy lowbrow fun, offers a surprising amount of wit and heart. Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks) stars as Shaun, a carefree California surfer dude who loses a friend to a tsunami. Shaun is contemplating his life when he finds a brilliant novel buried in the sand. He reads it and decides to become a writer himself, and study with the author, who teaches at Stanford. He's eager to leave Orange County, where he lives with his clingy alcoholic mother (Catherine O'Hara) and his burnout brother Lance (a brilliantly debauched Jack Black). When Shaun's guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin) sends the wrong transcript to Stanford, Shaun needs all the help he can get from his seemingly hopeless family to salvage his dream. ORANGE COUNTY was directed by Jake Kasdan (Lawrence Kasdan's son) and written by Mike White (CHUCK & BUCK) who also plays Shaun's illiterate English teacher. Schuyler Fisk (Sissy Spacek's daughter) plays Ashley, Shaun's animal-loving girlfriend, and she and Hanks make an attractive and sympathetic pair. While all kinds of insanity (including hilarious turns by Black, O'Hara, and Harold Ramis) spins around them, the young and dynamic couple remain the soulful center of the film.