(2003) The open sky appears ordinary on a school day at Watt High School in an upper-middleclass neighborhood (only one African-American student, Benny, appears), but something's in the air.

In the driver's seat, John McFarland (John Robinson) arrives late to campus after having lunch with his father (Timothy Bottoms), who under the influence of alcohol had been driving erratically. As he's making a call to his brother Paul to come get their dad, he's called into the principal's office for being tardy before told to go to class.

On his way to school Elias (Elias McConnell) takes photos with his camera of a teenage couple; he will encounter John in the hallway and take his picture before going to the photograph room to develop his film.

Leaving the recreation area (Beethoven's "Für Elise" on the soundtrack), wearing an orange hoodie with "Lifeguard" and a large white cross on the back, Nathan (Nathan Tyson) takes a long walk through the grounds and hallways (only a few teachers appear in this huge complex) before meeting his girlfriend Carrie (Carrie Finkea); they checkout of the office at 11:30, saying they'll return about 1:30. Carrie tells Nathan she can't join him and his friends for fourbying because she has a doctor's appointment. (She may be pregnant.)

A clique of three girls - Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole - gossip and bitch in the cafeteria before going to the restroom for their anorexic purging.

When she finds John crying, Acadia (Alicia Miles) sympathetically kisses him before going to a meeting of the Gay-Straight Alliance club. Instead of going to class, John walks out of the building, passing Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) in camo gear, carrying black bags: "Get the fuck out of here and don't come back."

Some scenes are repeated from different perspectives, such as "the nerd girl" Michelle (Kristen Hicks) passing John and Elias in the hallway on her way to the library. The timeline moves backward and forward, between John's arrival and the return of Nathan and Carrie. Except for a scene at Alex's home (at least a few days earlier), he's playing "Für Elise" on the piano in his bedroom while Eric is on a killing rampage with a video game on his laptop.

While some teenagers think high school is hell, director/writer Gus Van Sant's 80-minute nightmare for HBO Film dares to look at the elephant in the room.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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