Wasted on the Young

I was given the opportunity to watch this film as a part of a special screening and focus group session. I didn't read up on the plot beforehand, but was given the general gist of it by my cousin, who somehow managed to turn it into Swimfan #2. Thankfully, he had no idea what he was on about. This film is anything but an ostentatious Hollywood slasher, and is every bit an indication of top-quality Australian cinema.

I don't usually give films 10/10 ratings as i am extremely picky about whose praises i sing, but this one went above and beyond any expectations i had. The opening sequence reeled me in hook, line and sinker; and i was mesmerised until well after the credits began to roll.

The cinematography is incredible. The production values seemed very high (whether this is the case or not, i am unsure) and there are some expertly filmed and executed scenes. The use of special effects to signal dream sequences and the omission of kitschy fogged lenses during flashbacks (colour saturation was changed instead) make this a visually stunning film.

The soundtrack also plays into the script exceedingly well, swelling into an overbearing presence during scenes to build tension and confusion, and being understated in others which develops a foreboding atmosphere.

The storyline reads like a clichéd teen flick that one expects will try too hard and not hit the mark, but the script development, along the performances of Alex Russell, Oliver Ackland, TJ Power and Adelaide Clemens ensures that this film achieves its purpose. It doesn't just tell a story, it involves you in the story and it leaves you questioning not only the villains doing wrong, but the heroes and their idea of "right". The film does an incredible job highlighting the incidence of school bullying and the environment that it occurs in as well as commenting on youth culture in general.

Although the film is set in an Australian high school, and based on final year students (~17/18 years of age), i fear many individuals in the target audience might miss out on the chance to watch this brilliant film; either through choice or lack of exposure. I feel this film would be incredibly useful if included in high school English curriculum as it would allow the teens it is aimed at a chance to watch the film, but also walk through all the issues and themes it raises.

This is, in short, a brilliant film. It ticked all the boxes for me and i strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys powerful, provocative and intelligent films.

In a word: intriguing. In a few more, an ardent revenge film that shows substance and style in some areas, but appears to have bitten off more than it can chew in others. This little-known Australian film continues to follow the trend in the local film industry. That is, for every Kenny and Kings Of Mykonos crowd-pleaser released, many more dark and brutal Aussie films fall by the wayside only to be discovered by a handful of people each time, with Animal Kingdom being a noted exception.

The film follows Darren (Oliver Ackland), a nice-enough high schooler who spends most of his time around computers and homework. He is the polar opposite of stepbrother Zack (Alex Russell), whose priority is maintaining a reputation as Mr. Popular. Things take a sinister turn when the shy Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens, a dead ringer for Michelle Williams) is invited to one of Zack's house parties and goes missing for almost a week afterwards. By the time she returns, the school is rife with rumours surrounding her disappearance, and Darren, suspecting his stepbrother and his nasty bunch of friends, decides to find out the truth and punish those responsible.

As mentioned, cinematic style is a big part of Wasted On The Young, and may well be the film's highlight. Unique editing and camera-work during the house party scenes result in an indulgent, but not stereotypical, world that these kids inhabit. It's certainly no accident that the house used is an extremely modern one, full of glass corridors, open spaces and hidden rooms that allow the camera to almost become another character.

Wasted On The Young is rife with themes relevant to today's social landscape. Positively, these themes keep from interrupting each other because of the way they are presented one after the other, compounding the film's message. While it starts out as a critique of social networking, it soon becomes more about what our society may be reduced to in the absence of all authority, where the strong rule and the weak have no freedom. As if that wasn't intense enough, it goes on to pose a more challenging question: What happens when the weak decide they've had enough?

If that sounds like a badly concealed ad, I'll stop now. Because for all the thought-provoking ideas being presented, none of them are really driven home enough to make one think 'yes, that's the message the movie is trying to make.' The fact that it is set in a private school leads to a lack of realism regarding the whole 'no authority' angle, but once you make the connection that the setting only exists to support the metaphor, the film becomes a little more immersive. Other moments, including the climax, completely remove the moderation and consistency from a film that had remained fairly grounded in believability until that point.

The film could have dropped below the ninety-minute mark by cutting out a lot of gratuitous and unnecessary fluff during the Third Act. Fights and arguments among secondary characters were clearly included to both resolve character arcs and build the severity of the climax, but all they end up doing is ruining the pace and prolonging what has become a forgone conclusion by this point.

Nonetheless, in a choice simply between 'go' and 'don't go', I say 'go', if for no other reason than to make up your own mind on this ambitious endeavour.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*

It's easy to see Ben C. Lucas' first feature, Wasted on the Young, simply as a stylishly directed teen melodrama on steroids and cocaine. In the film, the romance developing between the lovely-but-sassy Xandri (Adelaide Clemens) and the cool-but-geeky Darren (Oliver Ackland) is brutally thwarted by an all-powerful clique of popular kids led by Darren's step-brother Zack (Alex Russell). It is set mostly in either sleek school grounds or drug-fuelled parties, but there is not a school teacher or parent in sight. Early hints of impending violence are realized at a party at Darren and Zack's house, during which tech-savvy Darren prefers to stay upstairs in his room playing violent video games and chatting online, despite Xandri's text messages enticing him to join her. In the wake of the incident that occurs in Darren's absence, the tension and violence rise quickly to a fever pitch, as the popular clique uses technologically enhanced peer group manipulation to suppress their crime, and their victims seek their own technologically enhanced revenge. The twists and turns along the way artfully maintain the tension as the plot unwinds to its conclusion, and the young cast all give great performances, especially the menacing Alex Russell. As a straightforward thriller, the film also offers some easy morals, though the finger wags have been modernized to the era of social networking and cyber bullying.

But although it's possible to watch Wasted on the Young as just a teen-thriller, there is much more to get out of it. For instance, a more interesting way to watch Wasted is as fantasy. Or rather, twin fantasies represented by the two main characters, step-brothers Darren and Zack. One, Zack's, is the fantasy of ultimate popularity, freedom from authority and unrestrained hedonism. The parties in the film may seem unrealistic, the members of the popular clique may be one-dimensional and the power they wield, and the violence with which they wield it, may sometimes be absurd. But that is the point of a fantasy. The other fantasy, Darren's, is the dream of a humiliating and violent revenge shared by anyone who has been victimized by the powerful. Where you find Zack's fantasy, you also find Darren's.

These are common fantasies and the cinema has a long history of indulging them. Revenge fantasies in particular are a favourite of action films, thrillers and, especially, teen films. More and more, our wider culture also indulges Zack's fantasy. The technologies through which we increasingly communicate encourage vapid interactions and the quest for popularity and acceptance — as Zadie Smith recently pointed out, it's not hard to see that Facebook was dreamt up by a 19 year old male. And reality TV shows, perhaps the most Orwellian concept ever coined, indulge our love of popularity contests and our desire to eliminate the unwanted by the sheer force of popular opinion. This sort of fantasy world is the one the characters in Wasted on the Young seem to inhabit, and there are plenty of suggestions that this is what Lucas had in mind.

Seen in this light, Wasted takes just the form it should. The fancy-editing, ultra-slick production and relentless pace make for just the sort of popular entertainment we should think about more critically. It's exaggerated elements — like the violence and drug-taking — and some strange plot features (including the absence of adult interference) are weirdnesses that point to the fact that we're in the realm of wish fulfilment and nightmares. The film's saturation with social networking tools and recording devices isn't a transient comment about those particular technologies, soon to be outdated, but a more lasting observation on how the technologies we use consolidate particular ways of interacting with each other. And while on the level of a thriller the ending may seem over-the-top, it actually works to remind us of the sorts of entertainments we're so routinely offered. In this way it's not unlike the strange, post-climactic scenes of Taxi Driver. The film takes on the form of the fantasy it wants us to think about.

As a film highlighting our various fantasies and the way we, as a culture, indulge them in the cinema and elsewhere, Wasted is by no means unique. The most recent predecessor I can think of is Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, in which we are offered the ultimate revenge tale — obliterating bastard Nazi's! And in some ways there are parallels between the two films, since Wasted so deliberately recalls so many films, especially cult teen flicks (think Heathers and Donnie Darko to name just two). But Lucas takes the idea in new and interesting directions and uses a tense thriller as his vehicle. It's fantastic to see an Australian film, a Western Australian film in fact, that aims so high and achieves so much.

As a teen thriller, Wasted is genuinely compelling, but if that is the only way it is received then it really will be wasted on the young.

WY is a violent, disturbing, low-budget Australian film whose plot and conflict are a bit similar to "Betrayed at 17" but go to lengths far beyond those of the Lifetime B-17. While it focuses mainly on the very darkest aspects of adolescence, it's pretty and sadly moving in a few spots, and the acting/characterization are undeniably real. WY also has a touch of the artsy and the surreal; it does a nice job of meshing certain characters' fantasies with their realities. Another interesting aspect of this film is how, although a few sparse adult voices are heard, the only visible characters are the teenagers, something I haven't seen anywhere outside of "Charlie Brown."

The pace of WY often plods (particularly in the middle), and the scope is limited almost exclusively to the teenagers' school and homes. Those qualities, along with the fact that WY's just generally a real downer, will obviously not appeal to some tastes. Others will find, as I did, that its better, more unique qualities make it a memorable and worthwhile experience.

What I liked about this movie was that it made a very strong point on how dramatically can a life go south when you are young, fragile and think you're invincible and free to experiment all you want without serious consequences. In that light, it's a real eye opener, as I believe it's getting more and more hard for people to be young and safe at the same time.

I'm afraid the movie itself wasn't too much of a good job. Most of the scenes were over-dramatized, the dialogs did not offer much and there ass little room for exploring the true minds and souls of the characters.

What got my attention was the style of scenes - very contemporary cold-feeling interiors, design and colors mixed with the techno club music. All this was accompanied by visual effects like fast forwarding or slow motion. As a matter of fact, it was a dynamic cut. Maybe little too dynamic - there were certain scenes that were only visualized imaginations of characters and then the movie rolled back - which might have taken a while for the viewer to actually understand. These daydream-like flashes were triggering almost randomly and most of the time viewer could have very hard time understanding what has or hasn't happened.

Mood and content wise, the movie crushed everything possibly beautiful in a blood bath of modern darkness and shallowness, but I think it was meant to leave a reaction of bitterness in you, since the scenes and plot was quite drastic. In a strange way, it might be the intended message of the movie for the viewer to pick up.