This is my first ever review. I have never felt the need to spread a movie, or voice my opinion before, but I find myself angry that more people have not seen this movie. It is a movie unlike any other. Scott M foster portrays Thayer Mangeris, a delinquent and a somewhat bad boy from a broken home, who grows a connection with Amber Lang, played by Noa Hegesh, through the creative writing class they have together, and their frequent correspondence in study hall via a notebook. Noa, who has never liked Thayer before, having been forced always to sit with him due to their naming order, finds herself growing feelings for this wrong side of the tracks boy. i wont say anything more but this: buy a copy of this movie, for a guarantee you will be watching it again and again.

Let me start by saying this: Teenage Dirtbag has a cliché story line, with cliché characters. But even still, there's something about this movie that draws you in, and holds you. Thayer is your typical bad boy with a broken home. His father and older brother beat on him, he does drugs, skips school, etc... But there's still something about him that makes you sympathize with him, and makes your heart break for him. Amber is your typical rich kid whose parents ignore her, and her friends don't know her, etc... She's not quite as heart-pulling or emotion- provoking, but still good none the less. I was quite impressed by the person they had to play Thayer. He wasn't the tattoo'ed, punked out, buff bad boy I was expecting. He didn't use his looks to portray Thayer, but rather his acting. And he did an amazing job. The soundtrack was also amazing to this. The music was just perfect the whole way through. I think this was more realistic than most stories similar to this. Amber didn't ditch her friends, and go running off with Thayer, even though she wanted to. And most girls wouldn't. It was -depressingly- true to life. Over all, this movie was a must see. I'm typing this as I watch it for the fifth time this month. :D

Supposedly based on true events, Teenage Dirtbag tells the story of Amber a popular high school girl who is harassed by a delinquent boy,Thayer. Thayer seems to develop an obsession with Amber and what begins as teasing and harassment soon evolves into affection as Thayer tries to reach and connect with Amber.They are placed in the same creative writing class and trough written words they start to understand each other a little better and the class becomes a bonding experience as they share their feelings. A friendship starts to form but Amber is confused by her feelings and Thayer has to withstand his abusive father and a broken home.Teenage Dirtbag is essentially a unrequited love story between teenagers.Very well written and directed,this small independent film turned out to be a pleasant surprise and it deserves more recognition and a wider distribution. The performances were all very solid with a special mention to the lovely Noa Hegesh who did a terrific job as Amber.The musical score which caught me by surprise,complimented the movie very nicely and kinda took it to another level. Overall a great effort by first time director Regina Crosby.

7/10

I agree with most of the good reviews of this movie. It affected me really hard. Although I didn't like the poem part because I don't know..I do that when I'm in some emotional personal thoughts and thinking of death. It is small budget film and some unknown actors but who cares? I give them an A. The pacing, acting and directing was great. I also never thought it is a 2009 movie. I was getting into a deep feeling at the end when he's really desperate in getting the girl but why couldn't he just say 'I like/love you' straightforward? Just thinking I thought he could be a lot bolder..Really good movie..Worth a watch. I also like the movie soundtrack at the end, it is tragic but beautiful. Too bad popular movies don't have this.

At first, I wasn't sure I'd like this movie when I sat down to watch it on Netflix. I don't typically watch teenage drama movies, but I was pleasantly surprised by this.

Firstly, it's not a teenage drama. I mean, it is, but it's more than that at the same time. To watch Thayer and Amber's relationship slowly turn from antagonistic to friends, to possible romance is a wonderful journey, that was very exceptionally done.

Secondly, I know this movie is a cliché that's been done thousands of times. Bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for the high and mighty cheerleader? Breakfast Club, anyone? But this movie was unique in one aspect:

It stayed true to life. In reality, Amber WOULDN'T have given up her friends, her way of life to be with Thayer. Very few people have the courage to step outside of the little boxed worlds they live in comfortably, to the unknown, and often times scary world outside of our box.

Some scenes were a little... Well, I guess bordering on disturbing. The abuse scenes we see are very tactfully done, and we never really see too much, although we know what's going on.

The actors were amazing for this. Scott Michael Foster did an EXCELLENT job as Thayer. For the first few minutes of the movie, I kept waiting for the 'Bad Boy' to show up, before I realized that the boy I was seeing WAS Thayer. He didn't have tattoos, or piercings, or dress in ripped shirts, black pants, etc. Unlike most actors, he used his acting to portray who he was acting, not his clothes or appearance.

Noa Hegesh wasn't quite as good as Scott Michael Foster, but still did an incredible job of portraying the cheerleader who's unhappy with her life, but unwilling to change.

One last note: The two leads never kissed on screen. Thinking back, I don't think they ever had any real physical contact. But you could still feel the emotions jumping off the screen at you.

Very well done movie, one of the best Indie films I've ever seen, if not the best.

"Teenage Dirtbag" is a love story between two teenagers who seem different but in reality are very similar.

The chemistry between Thayer and Amber is mesmerizing. And it doesn't seem to matter how the characters relate to one another – whether they are fighting or hanging out – their scenes together just leak with sexual tension. And the way everything unfolds is not so much in the words they say but in those silent moments they share: moments that can easily be overlooked if one is not careful.

What also makes their chemistry so effective is the awareness Thayer and Amber have of each other. As the attraction between them matures, they always seem to know where the other is without realizing it. For instance, when she's in the football field and he's looking at her from afar, hiding in his black sweatshirt. The way she looks up because she feels him looking at her is an undeniable example of that chemistry. Or when she's eating her orange and feels bad because she know that he's looking at it. By bringing him one the next day, she's acknowledging the fact that she heard the silent way he wanted the orange. Even more so, she's acknowledging the fact that she hears his words unspoken and thus, this orange marks the beginning of a short yet beautiful friendship. The next few scenes are my favourite. When she sees the peeled orange in the snow and the paper he left on her car. The paper doesn't say much, he just writes her name all over it and instead of finding it weird and ignoring it, it inspires her to write a poem that she reads in class the next day. As she reads it, the silent connection between them becomes stronger...

After that, Thayer comes out as the more aware partner in the sense that he consciously opens up to her. He lets her see the real him as if he is trying to show her that he sees and trusts the real her. It is not him who has trouble being vulnerable, it is her. She's afraid to let someone in and that is what comes in the way of them being together. Maybe he moves a little too fast for her and that is what makes her uncomfortable. She's not denying the feelings that she has for him but she's just not ready to explore them at this point and while he is attentive to everything, he somewhat neglects to see that. It's sad because he really puts himself out there when he asks her to come to the party with him. But the thing is even though he is ready, she's not. Maybe if he had waited a little bit more, she could have prepared herself for whatever was to happen between them.

The awareness between the two is also the reason why both of them know almost intuitively what would hurt the other person the most. Thus, Thayer knew exactly how much he was hurting Amber when he exposed her need for love in his poem and she was very aware of what she was doing when she exposed him by showing everyone the notebook. It's not so much the fact that everyone knew how he felt: that, I think he could deal with. It was the fact that her gesture said loud and clear that she didn't take anything that they shared seriously. And sadly, that could be a little true. It's like she never really realized how badly he needed her to love him. What's even sadder (to me anyways) is that the character of Amber ends up going through life without ever fully realizing how her love could change someone else's life.

It's also sad because he ends up believing that she hates him and everything goes downhill after that. Neither one of them is to blame. He made her out to be his Savior and it's a role she didn't ask to take on (of course, in life, the only person who can save yourself is yourself but that's a lesson that most of us don't learn at the age of 17…).

Nevertheless, this is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen in my life. Granted, it isn't flawless: I had to watch it more than once to actually grasp everything. But it is SO sincere. I forgot to say how much I love the scene when they are eating chips and listening to metal music… the very loud "crunch" sounds and the giggles made me feel like I was right there with them. I love how close I felt to the characters.

This being Regina Crosby's first attempt at writing and directing makes this movie even more amazing. Big time filmmakers have failed where she has succeeded. She managed to draw me in so far that I forgot everything else but what was going on in front of me. Even after the movie was finished, I was left in a weird emotional state that tasted a bit like love, a bit like nostalgia.

The things I wish were different: Even though we spend the most time with Amber, we have very little insight on what goes on with her family. We guess by her behaviour that she feels ignored by her parents but it would have helped to see a little more of that.

Also: I desperately want to share this movie with my friends but since most of them are french, I can't do that. I bought the DVD but there are no subtitles and so, it puts a barrier in my attempt to let other people in on how good this movie is.

I would like to end this (very) long comment by saying that I can't wait to see what else Regina Crosby comes out with. She has definitely made it in my top 10 favourite filmmakers list!

Where do I begin? First of all, I gave this movie 10 of 10, despite its many flaws, just because it affected me in a way that no other movie has. Scott M. Foster's acting here is more than excellent - it gave me chills and kept me involved to the very end. The soundtrack had a great impact on me too - probably it's the second major factor that makes this one worth-watching. Of course, you'll notice many things that are not right (like when we see Thayer's big scar... and then in some of the next scenes it's gone), but everything about this movie is so emotional that I just ignored its shortcomings. I surely will follow Scott's career with huge interest from now on. This guy has great potential.

I once showed "Teenage Dirtbag" to a college class of freshman-level composition students. While none of them absolutely loved it, it kept the entire class in rapt attention, and no one complained that it was just "stupid" or "boring," which is noteworthy. They found Amber Lange and Thayer Mangeress two very well-realized characters, and Amber's poignant closing lines produced a flurry of involuntary hums and sighs. One guy noted that it had a low budget feel, and that he would have liked more special effects, changes in scenery, and everything else one gets from larger company productions. I saw his point but think the lowbudgetness also adds to the essential realism of the film. What my class found most intriguing were the open questions and room for speculation this film leaves about what _really_ happen to Thayer's father and brother.

"Teenage Dirtbag" may not be anything truly special, but it accomplishes what its makers set out to do very well: Taut and gripping storyline with excellent acting and characterization. Several years after seeing it, this film remains quite fresh in my mind.

I streamed this film on Netflix and honestly, wasn't expecting much. I figured it would be a "bad-boy likes and gets the good-girl" type of cliché film. Boy, was I surprised. This film is a really good story that pulls you in and holds you until the end. The two main characters are both so intense. You can seriously feel their emotions and you cheer for them, you get caught up in their stories. There were parts of this movie that were hard to watch because they are so true-to-life. The filmmakers also paid special attention to the time period, capturing the feel of the late 90s perfectly. This is how high school was for me when I attended school during this period. I remember like Thayer and Amber, being forced in study hall to sit next to this guy I barely knew, and over the course of the year we became friends, writing notes in our notebooks, taking turns bringing snacks, and finding ways to dodge the attention of the grouchy study hall monitor. I was totally able to get wrapped up in the story. I was really impressed with this film and highly recommend it.

I extremely enjoyed this indie gem from the first minute to the last, even though the concept and the various topics, which have been touched in the movie (hatred turning to love, broken home, fitting in, far-from-perfect high school environment), cannot be called authentic. The idea, however, that a certain conflict originating in one's deviation from the average on whatever grounds can be overcome by the power of words is refreshing. Here poetry is the key to annihilate the barriers between the main characters. Through the creative writing class the characters embark on letting each other peek under the surface to discover who they really are. Probably that's why the male leader is so obnoxious when we first encounter him, whereas later it is unavoidable not to like him or at least not to sympathise with him.

Poignant film with elaborate characters, nice soundtrack and brilliant poems.

Just watched it and it drew from me every emotion the director desired and then some. As the movie began I immediately thought it was older than 2009 as nothing jumped out at me that said it was a 2009 movie. It appeared to be a high school type movie but it slowly drew me in like a classical novel. I viewed troubled teenagers while easily placing myself in the lead's character role. The lead follows and mildly harasses his dream girl in school. However, the movie is so much more than your typical standard HS movie about the different groups we all experience in H.S. as it brings the creative writing element into the picture and a young troubled male opens himself up to a creative writing class but with the intent of opening himself to the girl only. Study hall leads to a fondness perhaps a forbidden fondness between the two as they are very different people experiencing life from different ends of the spectrum but not really so different. Highly recommended movie about love, different groups in High School and the darkness of a broken home. This movie can be depressing as love can often be and while it shows many aspects of a broken home and perhaps a broken lead character it can lead to strong internal hurts for those that may have experienced similar circumstances in life. I recommend viewing on a Saturday afternoon and then going out and being active so not to linger in the emotional strings that it will surely tug at within you. Rarely does a movie pull at you emotionally like this one and that makes it a true treasure

It would seem like an opened a window on someone very dear's secret thoughts. There are no much ups and downs in the story, it is quite flat. It's so simple, so well - known, but through this very same quality it reaches to involve the audience so deeply - and thus such an intimacy felt with the characters. The antagonist main characters under the aura of truthfulness, reach to connect to each other in the class of Creative Writing, where they are asked to bare their souls. Naked and pure as they are exposed, they find that poetry is within every single life - no matter the dramas, no matter the pain, no matter the hurt. He is a life gambler - can have everything because he needs nothing: he is used to disasters, he has no fears. But he can't stand being ignored by her, the perfect, all neat and tidy cheerleader. On the other side you find out she is condemned even more then him: condemned to be cold and controlled. She is the one who is under the pressure of maintaining the social status.

The love that flourishes is a rare unconsumed one, mingled in breathtaking poetries and murmured confessions. They find themselves making love in their fight, not accepting the tremors they cause to one another, avoiding and nurturing an unseen bound that ties them forever. But she stops searching him, wanting him, inspiring them. Her days die. So seems to be with the inner fire he could have lit within her soul. Her attitude, head up high reaching mountains he never wanted, treats him as a small firefly, another amusement of summer twilights, a distracting one. She chooses the acceptable format by the society and ceases to believe in the dance of their souls. The movie is about everlasting loves between lost souls, a love impeccable of ordinary relations . It is about a precious feeling which, under other circumstances other than the agonistic dilemma posed to her in the end, would be assumed that would just degrade in the fake flow of the everyday. It's like a teenage version of Peter Pan - Wendy's love: the she escapes; fearing to loose contact with the measurable reality and the he plunges in the deepest waters of life dimensions being the hero of the truth, making love with the angers, the resentments, the social statuses, the fakes.... our hero fights till the end simply by living purely with no fear. He is just like a coffee bean: cannot help other than give its flavor and taste to the boiling-water-like challenges: even to an officially unrequited love.

I found myself wishing as a kid to be somewhere inside the story so that i could change their lost. But maybe, this is the beauty of it, this is the gift they can have. Having printed forever in her stony heart through carvings of unconfirmed death, the memory of a strong complete love.

I had PMD after this movie. Tonight, i'm watching it for the 7-th time in only one week.

For some reason, my favorite part of this movie is when Amber was at her locker and Thayer is walking down the hall banging hard on the lockers either trying to scare her or trying to annoy her. Then she starts talking to him. Saying something like I hate you then he stops and yells why she let everyone read his journal. Then he whispers "why" and leans his forehead against hers and she closes her eyes and that soft music plays in the background. Then he pulls away, she says "because I hate you." It's something about this scene that just makes me think: "damn. Regardless of what she says, its easy to tell she has a thing for him like he has for her." I just really love that scene.

i have to begin with:this film is excellent! the story of thayer and amber is portrayed in a very original way;you don't see not even one sex scene between them but you can sense their emotional bonding.their relationship begins with arguments,fury,disagreement and evolves into them sharing secrets thru writing.you can say that destiny(and the writers of the movie) wants them to know each other-they are put in a class together and in the study room.thayer and amber have had a not so good childhood,amber because of her absent parents ad thayer because of his abusive father and bully brother.they don't know about the problems of the other but this thing helps them connect more. even though they have different lives after high school and amber gets married,they still meet a few times and you can still feel the love they share. during the movie,amber tells their story-she finds out that thayer is dead(he could have faked his death because he told her he wanted this some time ago) and in the final scene,amber is resting with her new born baby,thayer's sister is watching them and we can see that the boy's name is thayer. you can say that she named her baby after him because he has had a major impact in her life but i think that the boy is indeed thayer's.

i have to add one more thing-the scene when amber is pregnant and she seats in their place in the study room and passes the same notebook they used as if thayer is there is simply heartbreaking!

****No major spoilers, just a comment about how characters unfold*****

This film gets off to a slow start that is not helped much by the film-making, which shows a lot of promise but is not confident or consistent.

Luckily I stuck with it and watched a really nice romantic story unfold between the two leads. Thayer is a layered guy with a haunting persona, expressive face and an incredible knack for creative writing. His scenes in their writing class were the best aspect of the film in my opinion. The female lead was good at times but generally not so well matched for her co- star.

All characters outside of the male lead were slightly two dimensional and under-written. Thayer's sister (played by the director I think) has the potential to blossom but she would have needed a couple more lines towards the end of the film (I would have liked to see what the two women spoke about when the female lead asks to speak to her).

Technically the film is so-so. The visuals are basic and do the job OK but the dialogue sounds dubbed and really takes away from the drama.

When the writing was good it was EXCELLENT and when the two leads had romantic tension (like when Thayer has his head pressed against hers by the lockers) the film showed moments of BRILLIANCE.

I would definitely watch the next film from this writer/director, especially if she gets a slightly bigger crew to help her tell her compelling stories.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen maybe the best so far. Its got just the right amount of tears and laughter. Its shocking and depressing. But its so amazing and proves a point. "death is fleeting..love lasts forever." STATEMENT. Teens have this thing where if they stay in their social group that they are just dandy. But going out and about from your social group brings many other things to your life that you never knew you'd actually wanna know. if i was in their situation i would of been just as shocked as amber was. Both Amber Lang and Thayer are awesome characters. I do believe this is one of he best movies I've ever seen in my whole life.

Many movies that contain other art forms- dance routines, songs, poems- disappoint because the art doesn't live up to the rest of the film. This movie was different. The poems were awesome, yet realistic high school level. The soundtrack had some great tracks that I will be investigating how to download them into my mp3 player.

The chemistry was real between the characters as well. Every time they interacted, there was an intensity. I have seen high budget films with huge celebrity names ruined because the character's feelings/chemistry were not believable.

I think this movie is a must-see. It was also a great example to cinematographers who think you need to add a whole bunch of nudity and swearing to portray sex and violence. This did the job without dragging the viewer through profanity and raunchiness. Though I did have to skip the fetal pig scene... YUCK!!! (Hope that raised your curiosity!)

I'm struggling to understand wh this movie rated so high. I keep thinking because it was filmed in such a small community, most of the high ratings would come from local people, friends, and family. I would rate the movie a bit higher if the characters existed instead of being loosely based on the directors high school experiences. Wasn't really worth watching in my opinion. Save yourself the time and read the Wikipedia description or better yet listen to the song Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus for a plot summary. Not very original.

At first I didn't know how to feel about this movie. It left me with a bitter taste and desperation and anger in my heart. But then I couldn't stop thinking about it and watched it again. And again. Now I'm a little obsessed with it, with the characters and I absolutely love it. If it were any different, it would be forgettable and mediocre. But as it is, it is just perfect. Very realistic, harsh and I don't know. This movie kicks you in the stomach and leaves you on the floor. I would love to see a sequel to this movie, but that's probably not going to happen. The chemistry between the main characters is electrifying. The story sound like a dumb cliché teenager movie, but that can't be further from the true. I would recommend this movie to everyone. It's just beautiful. This movie shows the painful beauty of life as it is. It shows us what the writer wanted to show us and not what the audience expects or hopes for. And that is art. I watched a lot of romantic movies recently and none of them compares to this one.

I can't get enough of watching SMF in this role. He is too perfect and just beautiful when it comes to facial expressions and body language. I swear, every time I watch (which is too much to admit since discovering this film last week,) I see something else that he did that was impeccably timed and perfectly acted. I wish he would do more roles that are this intense. I always liked him in his other roles and found him fascinating, but I'm just stunned by his perfection in this film. Whoever cast this deserves mad props for getting SMF. Because of this film, I am forever a fan of his, instead of just causally knowing his by his face (Cappie!)

It's a great film, overall. I was stunned to learn that Regina wrote, directed, and acted in it. Usually, when a person is that involved with a film, it turns bad real fast. She is very good at editing herself, though. The only thing I would change is to have less cheerleading and more interaction between Amber and Thayer.

This is an intense movie. Aside from the production team not having a high budget, this movie was great. The acting is incredible, especially on Scott Michael Foster's part. The movie follows the lives of Amber and Thayer as they intersect in high school. Amber is a high school cheerleader struggling to keep up with the image while Thayer is, for lack of better terminology, a teenage dirtbag with deeply seeded emotional problems. Senior year, they are assigned Creative Writing and Study Hall together and, because of the alphabetic order of last names, are seated together. Through writing in both classes, the two begin to draw together and reveal their deeper, darker sides to each other. I'll leave the rest for you to discover. The thing I love most about this movie is seeing, first, the bond that forms between the two characters and, second, the revelation of where Thayer's problems come from. The story is tragic and amazing and I think we can all relate.

I can honestly say this is the best film I've ever been able to watch, and I think more people should see it. The story line was great, choice of actors was great (minus Amber), I especially loved the soundtrack. Scott Michael Foster did an amazing job playing Thayer, however the opening and ending was..confusing, to say the least. I don't usually cry at films but this one did, the toilet scene towards the end (Between Amber and Thayer) really got me, hard. The poetry in the movie was incredible, definitely think there should be a book full of Thayer's poems, maybe even Amber's too.

No body seems to really take much notice the teacher of the creative writing class, he was one of my favorite characters in the whole film.

In the beginning of the movie, I was a bit skeptical, since some of the acting had some rough edges. Although I think it was more the non-Hollywood quality of the sound and editing I wasn't used to. After 15-30 minutes the movie seemed to mature (maybe I adapted, who knows), and considering its independent character, I can forgive these early small anomalies.

The directing was quite unique, and the emotional charge of the two lead characters was superb. The open ending makes you wanna watch this movie at least twice, so you can also grasp every aspect of the details (like the poems).

One can state, if this was a high budget movie, it would have reached the top 250 with no trouble at all. But then again, it might have lost it charm and uniqueness - making Teenage Dirtbag an excellent cult status candidate...

I hate to give this movie bad ratings, but it felt extremely amateur and poorly put together. I suppose with it being "based upon true events", that the story was a bit limited in it's flexibility. But maybe I'm a bit too used to fairy tale endings that I thought this story might have some sort of more meaningful story arc. It really did seem like it came out of real life because it wasn't some magical ending. The whole story was weird, haphazard.

This isn't a love story. Let's get that straight. That's my first disappointment. There was serious potential for a "star-crossed lover" theme but that didn't happen. It kept hinting at that over and over but the female character kept doing the shallow self-conceited thing to do and ruined the storyline potential.

You have this dysfunctional boy from a severely abusive family, and this popular girl with everything she could want - great grades, money, a big house, a boat on a private dock, etc. And yet she is this horrid person. Through the story you are given the boy's perspective at home with his abuse and you can't help but feel for him, and you start to see a sympathetic/redeeming side to him. But the girl is just too shallow to really develop their hidden bond into anything real. It tears him apart that he bares himself to someone and she just doesn't respond in a way that validates his worth as a human being. So he gets aggressive, cruel, mean, etc and she pushes away. Not a very interesting story. Realistic, perhaps, but if I wanted to see people being shallow to each other, I'd actually go back to high school.

The story telling was just awkward. The actors felt amateur. The music was interspersed at the oddest times, way too much music, too loud, trying to hard to manipulate mood, etc. You start out with the female character in her late 20's, pregnant, and hearing about this old acquaintance that seem to have died.

Flashback to high school, there is a definite tension of his dysfunctional/shock-seeking behavior. The girl is a shallow conceited cheerleader. Nowhere along the line do you show her growing and caring, etc. She ends up being not likable regardless of the fact that she's the narrator. Maybe you were supposed to like her, but I didn't.

The boy and her start with some hump of high school conflict/tension/class-warfare and befriend each other for an hour out of the day in the privacy of study hall. They dare not actually befriend each other outside of anything. She sure doesn't try to be nice to him. She goes on her merry conceited selfish ways while he tries to open up to at least someone who might show some compassion, sympathy, care, let alone some wild chance at love. Not an ounce of any of that. She befriends him secretly but quickly pushes him away and drives him to lash out. If she wasn't the selfish type, maybe he might feel like he could let go of his aggressive obsessive behavior, but she doesn't and it gets worse. In that sense it's maybe a "real life" type of feel, but nobody wants to see that kind of story in a movie theater. It gets uncomfortable as his behavior becomes more obsessive, and she just pulls away.

The weird present-day pregnancy storyline seems to only be thrown in there in some cheese-factor attempt at explaining how she honors this acquaintance of hers, by naming her baby after him. I have to be brutally honest that it feels pretty lame put in the story.

I kept hoping that as the story progressed, that something would show this bond as meaningful, like they hooked up, he happened to be the father of her unborn child, etc. NOPE. The bizarre thing is that there's a scene where after high school he brings up the idea of faking his death. So she spends a bunch of time later trying to investigate what happened, convinced that maybe he isn't dead, but just hiding. However, once she finds the sister, that subplot gets dropped. They chat for a bit, then the scene cuts to her in the hospital with her baby and the sister watching from the doorway. The baby's wristband says the boy's name (as a namesake), and that's it. The end.

I could overlook the cheesy music, the bad acting by the secondary characters, pointless dialog (despite the realism), etc... but the story was just not memorable. It wasn't something that grabbed my attention. I didn't feel like I cared about what happened. Good stories and good movies get you attached to the outcome. This movie did not. The writer/director also happened to play the sister in the film. I can appreciate that she may have put a lot of work into the film but it just wasn't good/captivating storytelling. At all. In fact, there were many instances where the story could have veered off into a different, more interesting and enjoyable direction, and it went in the opposite. The one accomplishment of the storytelling was changing your perspective from liking her and being creeped out by him to caring about him and hating her. Beyond that, it failed. It could have at least explored the futility of star- crossed lovers in this extreme white-trash vs elitest combo, that would have felt more interesting. But the movie didn't even bother trying.

I suppose I got entirely spoiled by watching a star-crossed lover type of film "The Spectacular Now".... and that set my standards really high, I was expecting something similar from this film and felt at a loss with how amateur afternoon-TV-special this felt.

I randomly picked this movie from the category in Netflix called "Understated indie dramas"- it seemed like the typical other-side-of-the-tracks love story but ended up being so much more than that. I loved that for once a writer realized that social constructions often effect people in immense ways- with such intensity that it prevents true love from flourishing. Perhaps the best aspect of the movie was that the "lovers" in question never shared a kiss. The directing and further acting evoked such passion on screen (I'm thinking back to the scene where Amber had just given away Thayer's notebook and he corners her against the locker)that actual physical intimacy didn't even need to be acted out. True love stories don't necessarily end with the two people in question dumping the friends that disapprove of the relationship and ignoring acquaintance's admonitions- they often can't get past society's expectations. By far the best love story I've ever seen- just watched it for a second time with one of my friend's- and plan to show it to a lot of people!