Wasted on the Young (2010)
There is almost nothing in this world I find scarier than teenagers. Even worse? Teenagers with an endless supply of money who answer to nobody but themselves. As someone who never particularly identified with or got along with people of my own age between the years of 13 and 19, I've always found there is something particularly terrifying about the way most teenagers exist now: running around with a constant connection to the entire world but somehow, still having no real concept of consequence or any semblance of life skills. There have been dozens of movies that touch on this topic, but I haven't quite been so unsettled by a film as I was by Ben C. Lucas's Wasted on the Young.
Didn't hate teenagers before? You may when this movie is over...
The Story: Zack (Alex Russell) and Darren (Oliver Ackland) are stepbrothers who attend the same elite private school. Zack is a gorgeous swimmer who is insanely popular because he's a dick and throws boozy drug-fueled parties every weekend, and Darren is a gorgeous swimmer who isn't popular because he's smart and likes computers and nerdy shit like that. When kind and beautiful Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens) expresses interest in Darren over Zack, Zack won't be having any of that nonsense, so he drugs her, and then gang rapes her with buddies at a party. And when Xandrie has the nerve to stand up to him, he turns the whole school against her via social media, culminating in a devastating final act in which Darren uses his brains to take revenge against his idiot stepbrother and all his cronies' brawn.
"You're telling me you feel nothing? No regret? I suppose you can because you're not even a real person. You're just an idea. You're a concept of what boys want to fuck."
While an Australian film, the themes in Wasted on the Young are universal: cyber-bullying, the high school social system, and how hard it can be to make your voice heard when everyone around you is fighting to silence it. The whole film hinges on the performances of the actors and they are truly remarkable. Adelaide Clemens (Silent Hill: Revelations, No One Lives) as Xandrie is sweet and beautiful, so innocent and fresh-faced she could have been a Noxema girl in the 90s. Her genuine likability is what makes everything that follows that much more painful. One unanswered text message and trusting the wrong people for a night, and a young girl's life is changed forever; watching this transpire through Clemens' eyes will shake you to your core.
It also helps that the popular crowd in Lucas's movie go beyond normal idiot shenanigans by engaging in pervasive narcotic use, drugging girls to rape them, trashing their homes, cheating, lying... They're basically a bunch of budding sociopaths who are given free reign to bloom and grow into full-blown psychotics with absolutely no ramifications. The fact that they are played by young people who look like Abercrombie models only furthers that which is inherently untrustworthy about them: these are are kids who are starting the race on the finish line and still behave as if they are better than everyone else who has been running the race from the start. Lucas's script acknowledges this fact with horrifying clarity, and it's never anything less than overwhelming.
Revenge Honey Rating: 4 douche parties out of 5
Wasted on the Young is available on Netflix Streaming, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video,
YouTube VOD, Google Play, & blu-ray/DVD
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