Bryce Durham (Just hear me out, OK?) Stories about school shootings have always fascinated me. I DO NOT encourage or support the killers' actions, but it gives us a different look into human psychology. Specifically, the case of Columbine has been the one I slightly obsess over. Dylan and Eric had a complex (but very sick and reprehensible) philosophy. This movie is one of the many, many school shooting themed movies made after the events at Columbine.After watching the trailer I thought Alicia was simply a tough girl with an "alternative" style, such as Lisbeth from the Millennium trilogy. Instead, she just ended up being a melodramatic young adult. While the build up to the end of the movie where it explains why she is the way she is kept me interested, it simply wasn't satisfying. Alicia and Deanna were not fleshed out enough.ALICIA went through a traumatizing event, the idea it turned her into a completely opposite person is very overdramatic. She's just way too vicious and unsympathetic. She looked and acted entirely different than her former self, yet she had a caring father and many people tried helping her through her pain. Alicia was an excuse to put a goth kid into the movie. After Columbine, the goth and metalhead scenes were very often considered responsible for school shooter attitudes and mentalities. Music promoting philosophies such as Satanism and nihilism (like Marilyn Manson) were turned into scapegoats. It represented social outcasts in high schools, which Eric and Dylan were. You'll find that a plethora of these post-Columbine movies where a teen is emotionally distressed is also goth. It was basically obligatory. Also, Alicia's lesbianism comes out of completely nowhere. She said earlier that she finds men in their late thirties more sexually attractive than guys around her age.DEANNA mentions that people only like her because she's rich and trendy. She's got the nice car and hangs out with the preppy "in" kids. At the same time, she's kinda nerdy - she gets good grades and even mentions being in a mathematics contest. It would have been great if being in the hospital room for so long changed her into a different person, like the room acted as some kind of cocoon for personal growth. (That's only a minor complaint though.) Before Deanna can attempt suicide, Alicia convinces her not to and says something along the lines of "You need to tell your parents to get you out of that room." It was already established that she demanded to go back out in the world many times but HAD to stay in that room so her injuries could fully heal and receive counseling for her PTSD.THE SHOOTER is never really established. He killed 16 kids because that's just what socially outcasted kids do. That's what Alicia declared, but it's never actually explored any further. Dylan and Eric had many anger problems. Eric got even more violent because some antidepressants can cause that in people which was evident in his case. It wasn't just that they were outcasts. In fact, Dylan had a good number of acquaintances. However, he also had anger issues so Eric's social Darwinism philosophy was seen as reasonable to him.IN THE END it's a rather mediocre/average movie in terms of story structure and character building. Convincing and notable acting. Appropriate setting. Some clever bits here and there. The scenes feel in order and flow into the following ones. Keeps the audience interested.

Renzo Gilardoni As I have read in other reviews, this movie is not about school shootings but rather about its consequences on the people who go through it. And I like that this movie doesn't try to find answers that are simple not that easy to find. One thing I've learned about human beings and human emotions is that two plus two doesn't usually equals four, and when it comes to such atrocities such as school shootings that are committed by human beings, there are not really logical or rational answers that you can find just by establishing a cause-effect relation. I remember listening to Sec. Defense Robert McNamara saying that "it's not that we are not rational, we are rational, but reason has limits". He was talking about the nature of war, and how this was done by human individuals. I think the same goes to school shootings.And so, this movie centers on the relationship between two high school students who were present at the shooting, one who was left seriously wounded (Deanna Cartwright, played by Erika Christensen) and the other who survived the shooting unharmed (Alicia Browning, played by Busy Philipps) and knew the shooter personally. And who by the way are total opposites. I can't think of another two characters who differ more in almost every aspect of their background and personalities except one, and in the end they end up understanding each other and also caring for each other. But at first things are not easy for these two young women and they do not get along at all. Although from the start Deanna is friendly and polite with Alicia, Alicia does nothing but hurt her and lash out at her with sarcasm and harsh remarks. But gradually they begin to get past their differences and start to get along, despite Alicia attacks Deanna with some sarcasm from time to time. What is more remarkable about this movie is that it stresses something that people usually forget, and that is the meaninglessness of money and material wealth when it comes to dealing with tragedy and loss. Look at Deanna, who seemed to have it all, money, good grades, driving a BMW, etc. but it only took a traumatic and tragic event for her to be "dying inside" and even contemplate suicide. There is something of a cliché saying which says something like "when you are up everybody wants to be your friend, but when you are down you know who your real friends are". And it is clear that Deanna had no real friends, even she herself acknowledges this to Alicia before ask her to leave. The only real friend for her turns out to be Alicia, the less likely friend she could have, because Alicia and Deanna had nothing in common, except that they both were lonely and enjoyed each other's company. You can see how Alicia really cared about Deanna, because even after Deanna asked her to leave and not to come back, she DID come back and searched for her and prevented her from committing suicide, and helped her to get over the sense of tragedy and loss and learn to live with it.And for me the end of this movie was a fair reward to all what these two young women had gone through together, because they had learned to know each other and care for each other, and they deserved to let go themselves and share one sweet moment of pure humanity between themselves. That is what I liked the most about this movie, its earthiness, because the emotions of both girls were so human, so real, and for me shows the importance of the human side of people when it comes to form a real friendship.

spanky6666 I'm from Belgium and therefore my English writing is rather poor, sorry for that...This is one of those little known movies that plays only once on TV and than seems to vanishes into thin air. I was browsing through my old VHS Video collection and came across this title, I looked it up and it had an IMDb score of more than 7/10, that's pretty decent.I must admit that it's a very well put together movie and that's why I'm puzzled. This is the only film made by this director...? How come he didn't make lots of films after this rather good one...? Someone with so much potential should be forced to make another movie, ha ha ;-) Anyway, I really would like to see that he pulls his act together and makes another good movie like this one, please.....?

Valtresca At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch this movie when it came up on my guide so I looked it up on IMDb and thought the cover looked pretty cool so I thought I would give it a try expecting a movie like Elephant.Once I got past the fact that I am supposed to dislike the Alicia character played excellently by Busy Phillips, I realized what a good job this movie was doing toward setting up the relationship between Alicia and Deanna. Alicia is so mean to Deanna played by Erika Christensen almost throughout the entire movie but we eventually find out that they despite being polar opposites they have one thing in common besides being present at the shooting. They share loneliness and to what extent is revealed as the film progresses.I've just got to say how much I loved this movie and was glad to see all of the positive comments about it. I couldn't even get through Elephant because it just seemed to be exploiting the Columbine tragedy. This movie on the other hand was compelling and realistic. Busy Phillips acting is OFF the CHAIN!!! That is a good thing and I would love to see her progress into some more mature roles.