Remarkable as much for its insights as for its audacity, The Dirties approaches school violence with a comic veneer that slowly shades into deep darkness.
The story transitions from a believable portrait of young culture junkies into a showcase of Matt's burgeoning rage so well that it practically implicates viewers in the process.
The Dirties is as provocative as it is sloppily messy in its themes.
60
Empire
Empire
Like Chronicle, it's a fresh spin on the high-school flick. Unlike Chronicle, its execution never quite matches its ideas.
50
The DissolveNoel Murray
The DissolveNoel Murray
Ultimately, all the metafictions and social commentary are too vague to have any meaning, beyond giving Johnson a foundational justification for this movie. But while The Dirties is in some ways appalling, it’s also effective.
This sloppy, button-pushing black comedy reveals a crew desperately in need of counseling — less in anger management than in the fundamentals of screenwriting, camerawork and structure.