Fan Review by Joel and Patsy, July 16, 2010

Another gritty low budget indie complete with handheld reality style about a girl's rapid descent into teenage immorality. Straight laced good girl Tracy (Even Rachel Wood) is reeled quickly in by vivacious vampy vixen Evie (Nikki Reed), and immediately loses interest in writing poetry, science projects, and her longtime BFF Noel (Vanessa Hudgens, before she became like really famous). I mean to tell you this change for the badder is so rapid and drastic-looking (Tracy is babysitting and being patient with her mother one day and smoking and stealing wallets maybe 4 days later) that you are really forced to concluce that Tracy has always had a hidden mean streak, an anger so deep seated that this transformation was not an "if" but a "when". all it took was 7th grade to push Tracy in the right, I mean wrong, direction. Wood's performance, fillned with violent, frightening emotion, deserved an Oscar, but Holly Hunter as the weird Mom (dirty fingernails, digging in dirt for cig butts ?!) got the nod.

They don't go into why Tracy is so angry, but there are none too subtle hints that her Mother is a chronic fuckup, her Dad is a workaholic with a new family to focus on, her bro is always trying to boss her, and Mom's boyfriend (Sisto playing another on and off doper) is just always around, along with other unwelcome "friends", just getting on Tracy's nerves. She begins to lash out at everyone, the bro, the boyfriend, and especially Mom. Strange she never jumps on her Dad's ass. He may just be the real reason she's so pissed. Meanwhile, Evie, the little termite, sits back and watches all the fighting and chaos with an expression somewhere between bewilderment and amusement. It's hard to remember her as the same as Tracy, another troubled teenager in need of real discipline. They managed to pack just about every disturbing teen behavior they could think of into the film: self-mutilation, casual sex, drug use, drinking, stealing, lying, and the freakiest, trying to do a threeway with an older guy next door.

I didn't get the part about the black girl who comes up to Tracy and threatens her? Mom finally begins to wake up and try to do something, but we thought the ending was soooooo melodramatic. It was like, "all you need is love," but Tracy was too far gone in her rage to let Mel be kissing all over her. It was mushy and seemed fake.

We realize, however, that it took a lot of hard work and dedication to make this movie and that the story is realistic, based on a young girl's real life experiences. This movie actually began as a teen comedy, but there are enough of those out there. You do well when you write what you know, and hopefully what you know helps some other young person make different decisions.

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