WASTED ON THE YOUNG

Wasted on the Young unwinds in a hermetically sealed high-school, where adults and their rules are absent and in their place is anarchy and an orgy of text messages. Swimming champ Zack (Alex Russell) rules the coop while his step-brother Darren (Oliver Ackland) tries to stay out of trouble’s way by immersing himself in computer games. That is until a Black Rock-esque incident involving Darren’s crush Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens) puts the two boys into a horns-locked showdown, with the fate of the girl, the school, and even the fancy pile of bricks they call home on the line. This directorial debut by Ben C. Lucas gets an A for effort: the production’s grinding soundtrack, tricky integration of text and slo-mo effects all lay it on pretty thick. But for plot and character, both weak-wristed and miserly, a D-. Wasted, indeed. (AB) *