The Crusades Movie Is American Pie For The Next Generation — How It Embraces An Awesome Teen Comedy Trend (2024)

2023 teen comedy The Crusades may not have been a critical hit, but for Millenial viewers like myself, it’s a surprisingly refreshing example of how the genre has moved away from its problematic roots (and, admittedly, an exercise in self-reflection about what I used to laugh at when I was in the age bracket of the target audience). Directed by Leo Milano and starring Rudy Pankow, Khalil Everage, and Ryan Ashton among the ensemble cast, The Crusades doesn’t do much to reinvent the teen comedy genre as far as the plot goes.

However, while it may not be innovative, it is hugely entertaining in its own way. It’s also a huge improvement on the tone set by the likes of American Pie, Superbad, and other films in the same genre from my own adolescence. The Crusades movie stands as proof that teen comedies can still be raunchy, edgy, and boundary-pushing without being problematic, and there are several reasons why the 2023 movie should have a much better reputation than its 22% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests (though the 89% audience rating shows that regular viewers are giving Milano’s comedy the respect it deserves).

The Crusades Manages To Celebrate Male Friendships Without Focusing On Sex

The 2023 Teen Comedy Shows Young Men Aren't Only Interested In Getting Physical

The most refreshing thing I found about The Crusades was that the plot managed to focus on a group of teenage boys without revolving entirely around sex. When I was the target age for raunchy teen comedies, the narratives almost always revolved around the central characters' attempts to finally lose their virginity. This was the case with many R-rated 2000s comedies like American Pie, Superbad, and even parodies like Not Another Teen Movie. It even extended to teen comedy movies that didn’t focus on male leads, such as 2009’s 18-Year-Old-Virgin and 2018’s Blockers.

While sex does, of course, factor into many of the jokes in The Crusades, the plot most definitely doesn’t revolve around any of the characters' attempts to finally experience physical intimacy. Rather, the core focus is on the attempts of Leo (Rudy Pankow), Sean (Khalil Everage), and Jack (Ryan Ashton) to have one last carefree weekend together before their school, Our Lady of the Crusades, merges with the rival St. Matthews.

This presents a huge problem for Leo, Sean, and Jack, as the merger also means that one of the most violent kids in town, Vince (Ashley Nicole Ryan) will have them in his eyeline. They know that Vince will undoubtedly make their lives a living hell, and so the trio decide to try and enjoy themselves as much as possible before the merger means they’ll be unable to escape his wrath.

It’s this tension and resolve to enjoy their youth that is the core theme of The Crusades, rather than anything to do with sex. Yes, several subplots involve sex, but they take a backseat to the trio’s fears about Vince and their attempts to overcome them with one last weekend of anxiety-free hedonism. What’s more, the subplots that do involve sexual activity in some way flip many of the genre tropes laid out by the likes of American Pie on their head, though these all warrant further examination in their own right.

The Crusades Movie Treats Adults Seducing Minors As The Serious Issue That It Is

Ms. Kerpial Encouraging Leo's Crush Has Huge Consequences

There were plenty of moments in the teen comedies of the 2000s that involved one of the male characters lusting after a woman many decades older than them. The most famous example of this is, of course, Stifler’s Mom in American Pie. As was the stuff of cinema legend when I was a teen, Sitfler’s Mom (Jennifer Coolidge) ended up being ‘seduced’ by Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) at the end of the movie. This was, at the time, seen as a huge victory for Finch - though, in hindsight, it was incredibly problematic.

While Stifler’s Mom’s age was never clarified, she was at least in her late 30s, or possibly even her early 40s (Jennifer Coolidge herself was around 38 when American Pie was filmed in 1999). Finch and the rest of the American Pie characters were between 17 or 18. In retrospect, it wasn’t actually Finch doing the ‘seducing’ at the end of American Pie at all. He was a minor, and had the situation played out in real life, it wouldn’t be seen as funny in the slightest.

This is where The Crusades rectifies a hugely problematic trope from the teen movies of the 2000s. In The Crusades, Leo has a crush on his Italian teacher, Ms. Kerpial (Anna Maiche). Ms. Kerpial’s age is never disclosed, but this doesn’t matter. She’s still an adult, whereas Leo is a minor. Her flirtatiously encouraging his advances is highly, highly inappropriate.

It’s at the end of The Crusades that this particular plot thread comes to a head and, in doing so, shows how Leo Milano’s film is a huge improvement on the likes of American Pie. While Leo never becomes intimate with Ms. Kerpial, Vince reveals that he did have a relationship with the teacher when she was a faculty member of St. Matthews.

Rather than playing this off for laughs, or Vince being applauded for managing to ‘seduce’ his teacher, Ms. Kerpial is arrested for child molestation. This is, of course, what would have happened in real life. However, when comparing the moment to Finch and Stifler’s Mom, it shows just how much of an improvement The Crusades is to many of the highly troubling moments in many raunchy teen comedies of yesteryear. It’s a plot point that The Crusades should have been praised for - and it’s a shame that many critics overlooked this to instead focus on the perceived lack of innovation in Leo Milano’s 2023 film.

The Crusades Doesn’t Celebrate Characters Like Stifler

Teen Comedies Have Moved Away From Toxic Masculinity

If there was one character who became a pop-culture icon in the 2000s thanks to American Pie, it was Stifler (Seann William Scott). Stifler was seen as the height of cool by many viewers when American Pie debuted in 1999, and was treated the same by his peers in the movie. However, when looking back, Stifler was anything but cool. Crass and incredibly sexist, Stifler should really be seen as nothing but an example of everything wrong with toxic masculinity and the attitudes towards sex and women it encourages in adolescents.

The Crusades movie doesn’t lose sight of this fact, and there is not one, but two characters who mimic Stifler’s humor and life philosophy. However, rather than being celebrated, they’re seen as incredibly cringeworthy by other characters in the film. It’s a subtle commentary on the history of teen comedies and a genre, and might not even be deliberate, but it’s one I appreciated nevertheless.

The first of these characters in The Crusades movie is Riggs (played by Adam Shalzi). Whenever Leo, Sean, Jack, and their wider circle of friends are discussing sex or girls, Riggs is always there to bring the conversation down a peg or two with some kind of crass or obscene comment - the kind of statements that Stifler would make as a ‘joke’ in American Pie. However, rather than being rewarded with laughs or a high-five when he mentions (for example) that he’s got his X-Box controller on charge so a girl can enjoy the vibration feature, Riggs is treated with awkward glances. It brings the entire conversation to a halt, showing that his peers don’t appreciate his outlook in the slightest.

The second character that comes across as something of an anti-Stifler is Coach Krieger, the gym teacher at Our Lady of the Crusades. In many ways, Coach Krieger could almost be an adult Stifler. There are many moments he tries to offer the boys advice about women, and his vulgar comments and the complete disrespect he shows make every one of them incredibly uncomfortable. They clearly have no respect for Krieger whatsoever, and rightly so.

However, when comparing Krieger’s horrific ‘advice’ to much of the advice Stifler gives the likes of Jason Biggs’ Jim in American Pie, the two are almost indistinguishable. It was incredibly, incredibly refreshing to see these kinds of views disregarded by the central characters in The Crusades, rather than being viewed as some kind of sagely wisdom like similar sentiments were from Stifler by Jim, Finch, and the rest of the gang in American Pie (and, sadly, by the audience).

The Crusades Movie Still Contains Plenty Of Edgy And Gross-Out Humor (Without Actually Being Offensive)

The Modern Teen Comedy Still Has Teeth

This final point was, for me, the best thing about The Crusades movie. Yes, it manages to cut many of the problematic themes that plagued sex-based raunchy teen comedies of the 2000s. However, in doing so, it loses absolutely none of its edge. The movie can still be just as crass, vulgar, and (at times) incredibly gross - it just never does so through the incredibly toxicly masculine lens that its predecessors in the genre did.

For example, the movie opens with the boys taking Jack to a nighttime fight at a local baseball diamond against a student from St. Matthews. It’s quickly revealed that the student he’s fighting is deaf. This immediately had me holding my breath - I was completely prepared for some kind of incredibly offensive joke at the expense of the hearing impaired. Instead, The Crusades delivers the exact opposite.

Firstly, Jack gets beaten to near unconsciousness by the other student. He’s on the floor after a single punch. Secondly, none of the characters make a joke at the expense of his opponent’s deafness. Thirdly, the character himself manages to make an incredibly funny joke that doesn’t make his lack of hearing the punchline, but uses it for humor.

He holds his hand to one ear after landing the winning blow on Jack, gesturing with the other for the crowd to cheer louder so he can actually enjoy them celebrating his victory. It’s outright hilarious, and heartwarming in many ways, since the character takes ownership of their disability to use it in a joke which has Jack on the receiving end, rather than the other way around.

All in all, The Crusades is a great improvement when it comes to raunchy teen comedies compared to the likes of American Pie, Superbad, and plenty of others that myself and viewers of my generation were exposed to during the early 2000s. It’s a shame that critics didn’t appraise it in this regard, because if they did, it’s highly likely it would have received a similar level of praise from reviewers as it has done from its many fans.