Classic teenie movie, absolutely serving that purpose, within this genre it's quite good.

A mark in time. Even if not thaaat good

It's as true of its sexual politics as it is of its soundtrack to say American Pie is a time capsule of the late 90s. While the attitudes of the various teens (played by some of the period's hot young actors) is pretty retrograde by today's standards, my friend group was in its early 20s back then and their approach to sex was very much like this: competitive, crass, and pretty borderline in terms of what constituted consent. The four friends in the movie who make a pact to lose their virginity before graduation at least mention consent and by the end, have learned some lessons about some of worst behavior (as represented by Stiffler). Every generation has their teen sex comedy, so this may sound familiar to younger Superbad fans, or even younger fans of Booksmart (for older fans, I guess we have things like Animal House). American Pie is often dumb, but with four leads, it offers some variety as to the stories it can tell. AND it popularized the term Milf and gave the kids a new Mrs. Robinson in Stiffler's Mom. Unevolved though it sometimes is, it's still comes off as fairly harmless (which is a compliment, trust me).