| Reviewed by Glenn Gaslin Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary, Noah Segan. Directed by Rian Johnson. Released by Focus Features. Production Budget: $500,000 (estimated). Box office: $1,687,803 (U.S.); $1,958,303 million (world). High school, at least in today's movies, is nothing more than an overused metaphor, a fishbowl in which we'll toss racism, marriage, politics, war, the complete works of Shakespeare and anything but adolescence. So dig this, a brazenly creative, low-budget gem that's actually about being in high school. First-time director Johnson uses the conventions of a Hammett-like noir (think The Maltese Falcon) to pick apart teenage loneliness, love, power and friendship. The trip begins with a dead body and turns a too-smart-for-the-crowd loner into a driven gumshoe, forced to face down all that he'd been avoiding: the socialites and druggies and jocks, a vamping vice principal, some eccentric bad guys, some eccentric good guys and a killer femme fatale. And it's not just a gimmick. The loving adherence to hardboiled 1930s lingo ("The ape blows, or I clam.") and ambiguous plotting mashed-up with the washed-out sunny youthscape of modern Orange County, California, should make this mandatory viewing for any class. |
