Sex and the USA

Good script. The worst casting I've seen in a long time. Not a one of the actors playing teenagers is convincing under the age of 25, much less under the age of 15 - which is the age of the kids in this movie. The rich, cool, pretty 14 year old girl is played by a transvestite or something like that. It's worth it to see because the script is good, but that's about it.

I know what bugged me - it's like the filmmakers thought that kids who behaved this way had to be ugly and coarse. It's like a class thing, y'know. No genuinely pretty, cool 14 year old girl who did these things could be actually charming and likable. While the actress (who is closing in on 30 and doesn't really look like a transvestite) that plays Krista, is quite likable, there is nothing likable about the way she played that character. She's a tough,nasty child, with no personal charm and the demeanor of a stripper who hands out lap dances to her landlord when she's late on rent. I just don't buy that girl as a very privileged 14 year old. She's like a junkie in Needle Park or something. I shouldn't pick on that actress either, because all of them are way too old, and none of them are charming.

I think it would have been a lot better if the director had figured out how to stage things so that he could have used real teenagers, rather than 40 year olds.

But the script is really good. Don't see it for the movie. See it for the screenplay.

This film is an honest attempt to show the struggle of Christian youths in modern society at the dawn of the internet age. But watching it now in 2022, only feels like I'm watching the sad and tragic result of sexual miseducation and toxic Christianity.

The fall of organized religion hasn't made this movie age any better. But as a snapshot of what teenagers went through in the Bush era, it packs an uneasy punch.

I've also worked with the talented Wendy McColm before, and unfortunately she was completely underutilized.