Surfing on TV I came across this unknown film (unknown to me, anyway), and was quickly drawn into the story despite the most unlikeable, mindless bunch of foul-mouthed, acid dropping teens ever brought to life on the screen. Only later did I find out this was based on a true story of an incident that happened in Florida among a bunch of fairly affluent high school dropouts given little supervision by parents and bent on self-destruction.
Years ago we had stories of teen-age rebellion or alienation like "Rebel Without A Cause" which made a teen icon of James Dean. Here we have Brad Renfro heading a cast of relatively unknown actors but giving an intensely believable performance as a kid abused by his best friend (Nick Stahl), a bisexual sociopath and bully, with a taste for S&M who abuses all his friends for his own pleasure.
When a gang of teens hatch a plan to clobber him, led by Renfro's girlfriend, the whole half-baked idea ends up with them barely having a well thought out plan of how to make the kill. They hook up with a "mafia man" (local neighborhood punk with a reputation for contract killing), who finds out at the scene of the crime that none of them are as tough as they bragged about when it comes to the actual kill. Strangely enough, you find yourself rooting for the hit-man character (Leo Fitzpatrick) who has brains rather than the hapless teens playing follow the leader.
A chilling, disturbing crime story, laced with plenty of vulgar situations and casual use of foul-mouthed language, but honest in its telling of a very graphic murder committed by teens because of bullying and, it seems, an addiction for brutal video games. The teens are depicted as having mind-numbing stupidity, with one of them close to being retarded when he's on drugs.
At the closing credits, the sentences meted out to each teen is noted on the screen, each paying severely for mindless murder and mayhem.
Shocking tale is realistically presented and definitely not for the squeamish.
Years ago we had stories of teen-age rebellion or alienation like "Rebel Without A Cause" which made a teen icon of James Dean. Here we have Brad Renfro heading a cast of relatively unknown actors but giving an intensely believable performance as a kid abused by his best friend (Nick Stahl), a bisexual sociopath and bully, with a taste for S&M who abuses all his friends for his own pleasure.
When a gang of teens hatch a plan to clobber him, led by Renfro's girlfriend, the whole half-baked idea ends up with them barely having a well thought out plan of how to make the kill. They hook up with a "mafia man" (local neighborhood punk with a reputation for contract killing), who finds out at the scene of the crime that none of them are as tough as they bragged about when it comes to the actual kill. Strangely enough, you find yourself rooting for the hit-man character (Leo Fitzpatrick) who has brains rather than the hapless teens playing follow the leader.
A chilling, disturbing crime story, laced with plenty of vulgar situations and casual use of foul-mouthed language, but honest in its telling of a very graphic murder committed by teens because of bullying and, it seems, an addiction for brutal video games. The teens are depicted as having mind-numbing stupidity, with one of them close to being retarded when he's on drugs.
At the closing credits, the sentences meted out to each teen is noted on the screen, each paying severely for mindless murder and mayhem.
Shocking tale is realistically presented and definitely not for the squeamish.