Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) moves with her father to a small town. Thurston Goldberg (Reece Thompson) falls for the new girl. She has sex with her teacher Mr. Anderson (Josh Lucas). Ms. Budge (Rachel Blanchard) is the health teacher.

Kat Dennings rules this picture. She overpowers almost everybody in every scene she's in. She has an amazing scene in the girl's bathroom. If there is a problem, it's there's too many side stories going on. Much of it is used to create atmosphere. There's a serial killer roaming the town, and there's an industrial fire burning on the outskirts. Much of it is unnecessary and serves no purpose. Kat Dennings and the teen drama is more than enough.

It's hard being the new kid in school. Caroline (Dennings) and her father move from a big city to a small town and she is not happy with the move. She starts an affair with her teacher, and meets another boy her age. This is a very hard movie to review. The first half was pretty slow, the second half picked up and the last 20 min was great. I'd compare it to "Donnie Darko", but not nearly as complicated to understand. There is enough in the movie to keep you interested and watching through the slow parts, and after the ending you will be glad you did. Overall this is a good movie, but not great, definitely worth watching though. I give it a B.

Would I watch again? - I don't think I would.

*Also Try - Donnie Darko & Paper Man

The moody Caroline Wexler moves from the big city to a small town where the kids do a lot of drugs and are inbreed losers with 6 toes. The story at times is third person, at other times Caroline narrates. She tells us of a tale of a girl in school who worked as a stripper until 2AM then showed up for school and took extra classes. The football team, she tells us, would heat up quarters and throw them at her while she walked through the halls. A "serial killer" (dubbed a serial killer after first body was found) kills the girl and they find marks of heated quarters on her legs.The waste dump fire and serial killer were under utilized as metaphors/symbols.

After her death, it appears the overly mature Caroline is the prettiest girl in school. She seduces her teacher and a classmate. As time goes on we discover the teacher has the persona of a psychotic character portrayed from his own novel and has developed an unhealthy need to continue his relationship with Caroline.

The movie makes clever use of juxtapositions to create humorous scenes. There are also slow scenes and slightly annoying first person narration. The soundtrack was fairly lame. The climax scene is supposed to be a culmination of the scenes building up upon each other. In an indie, it is not necessarily predictable, but it is at least metaphorically or symbolically part of the movie. This one was not. It was a complete let down and a lack of closure by the writer. Want to watch a clever indie, try "Chumscubber."