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Created May 16, 2011 08:59PM PST • Edited May 25, 2021 10:56PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Suburban drug running goes tragically awry in this fictionalized account of a real Southern California murder. Nearly as alarming as the 2000 murder is the callow nihilism of the SoCal teens and twentysomethings involved with it. Living in comfort, they admire the gangsta doggs celebrated on MTV. Then their stupid and wannabe lives get upended when they snatch up the younger brother of a deadbeat member of their posse.

   The movie comes alive through the large and very impressive cast, headlined by several of today’s most impressive young actors and a handful of their estimable elders. In particular, Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone deliver first rate performances.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   A Who’s Who of young actors coupled with a handful of long proven moviestars largely make the movie.

   • Emile Hirsch easily conveys the conniving charm of a young kingpin.
   • Justin Timberlake proves even more impressive as his good timing buddy.
   • Shawn Hatosy well plays their toady.
   • Ben Foster plays wild as a strung-out crankhead from a nice family. Did his real-life counterpart really have Hebrew words tattooed across his chest?
   • Anton Yelchin proves yet again that he’s one of today’s best young actors as the teen victim looking for a good time.

   Their elders are an impressive bunch of stars.

   • Bruce Willis as a major drug-dealer dad.
   • Harry Dean Stanton as his running buddy.
   • Sharon Stone gives an especially impressive performance as the murder victim’s mom. Her coda after his death is stunning. Bloated beyond recognition, she delivers an Oscar-worthy soliloquy of pain.

   The large supporting cast adds to the powerhouse: Vincent Kartheiser almost completely unrecognizable from his Pete Campbell on Mad Men, Olivia Wilde as a hot girlfriend, Dominique Swain as another hottie (albeit one with a conscience), Alex Kingston as a self-absorbed Mom, and Amanda Seyfried as a party girl who plays a very sexy game of Marco Polo.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Nick Cassavetes, a prince of Hollywood, ably directs a somewhat convoluted tale with dozens of participants. Judicious use of flash-backs and flash-forwards help heighten the pathos.

    Cassavetes likely has intimate knowledge of SoCal debauchery, no doubt giving him understanding of the characters and their glimmering milieu.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.3

    Ugly, callow and mean behavior presented in the form of very attractive people living out immature hedonistic dreams. IOW, much gay and religious slurring, males and females referred to and treated as “bitches,” and an innocent kid gets killed. Ugly.

17. Sex Erotic 2.8

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Nasty 4.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    To the casual observer, it’s depressing that such casual cruelty was – and is – readily accepted. Just as Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger got himself in trouble by instructing some girls what they had to do as his “bitches,” so do the Alpha Dogs in this movie. Girls and lesser guys alike routinely accept being commanded as mere “bitches.” That ain’t no way to live, as either alpha dog or bitch.

    More prosaically, names were changed and dialog was clearly invented in bringing the murder of Nicholas Markowitz to the screen. Still, the upshot seems correct.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Glib 1.4

24. Physical Natural 1.0