Oh dear lord, this kid and his "observations." At first I thought it was supposed to be funny, but after a while, it just got annoying. He was seriously the most obnoxious character in the movie, so it sucks that he was the lead. The writers really nailed the pretentious, "above it all" high school tool who never goes anywhere without his copy of The Catcher in the Rye and an inflated sense of self-worth. He's so full of wisdom! So deep and enlightened! He's there to put the sheep in their places, since he's the only one who knows what's going on! This is like stoner 2.0, the kind of stuff that these guys think sounds so life-changing, like it's never occurred to anyone else, and their sole duty in life is to redirect the miscreants. I'm still not sure this was supposed to be part of the odd, dark humor that seemed to exist throughout the film. If it wasn't, though, I have to imagine the writers *were* that kid.
I didn't know B.K. Cannon was in this movie! I was excited to see her for her brief cameo, despite the creepiness of the scene. Vincent D'Onofrio was fantastic, of course, and his scenes, as painful and uncomfortable as they were to watch, saved a lot of the movie. I feel like the entire bit with the bored housewife should have been cut. It added nothing to the movie and played out more like a clunky attempt to metaphorically represent a boy growing up and coming into his sexuality. The pacing died, and I found myself doing other things with the movie playing in the background. Honestly, if all of that had been removed, it would have been a much better film. Those scenes really dragged, and they were so jarring whenever they occurred, total change in tone and atmosphere. It's like you're in the middle of a car chase scene, then it cuts really quickly to Antiques Roadshow.
As much as I hated the beginning with the pseudo-intellectual babble, I actually really liked the ending. That saved it a bit. Overall, the film was trying too hard to be artsy and complex, but it did have some interesting moments and some legitimate humor. I give it a resounding "could have been worse."
