THE IN CROWD
Review by John Beachem
* *
Directed by: Mary Lambert Written by: Mark Gibson, Philip Halprin
Adrien Williams (Lori Heuring) has just been released from a mental institution after her primary doctor, Henry Thompson (Daniel Hugh Kelly), recommended her release. She now has a job working at a country club until she gets back on her feet. At the club she meets a group of elite young snobs led by Brittany Foster (Susan Ward). Brittany soon takes Adrien under her wing for reasons we never fully understand. As Adrien becomes more and more immersed in Brittany's world she begins to suspect a conspiracy of sorts, dating back a few years, and involving Brittany's sister who left the country. Brittany's friend, Kelly (Laurie Fortier), keeps hinting about it to Adrien, as though it were eating her up inside. Once Brittany finds out that Adrien suspects her of something, she turns all her attentions to destroying Adrien's life, and she proves quite adept at doing so.
There's a whole lot more to this plot, mostly involving relationships amongst the other members of the in crowd. You know, the sort of soap opera like plot twists of so-and-so is seeing so-and-so behind her back, but she is actually cheating on him with blah blah blah. My head began to hurt after about fifteen minutes of trying to follow this, so I finally gave up and wrote "everyone is seeing everyone behind everyone's back". I think the primary reason it was so difficult to keep track was because all the members of the in crowd looked alike. All the guys were tall with brown hair and goofy looking expressions, and all the girls were well-endowed, blonde (except Brittany and Kelly; I think so we could keep track of them), and constantly clothed in bathing suits. That, by the way, about covers the film's good points. The only reason anyone should see this is to watch a bunch of beautiful people run around on the beach for over an hour and a half.
Because the actors are all interchangeable, there really isn't much point in covering their acting skills, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. Susan Ward (apparently from "All My Children", imagine that) and Lori Heuring ("The Newton Boys") are the only two given a chance to display any acting skills, and both appear to possess none. Lori Heuring looks half dead throughout the film, which I suppose was intentional to show how disturbed her character was, but she might have overdone it just a smidge. Susan Ward's idea of acting evil seems to be: sitting off to the side, murmering false platitudes, conspiring against everyone, and keeping a small, fake smile on her face. Oh, I suppose that does sound fairly evil doesn't it? Yet somehow Susan Ward botches the attempt so badly, she looks comical rather than evil. The only other actor worth mentioning is Nathan Bexton (last seen talking to a cat in "Go"), who spends most of the film twitching violently in a corner or drinking alcohol by the gallon. Everyone else is either given no screen time (Daniel Hugh Kelly) or isn't required to act much beyond being a jerk (everyone else).
So how does the script itself fare? Well, you name the teen movie cliche and it's probably present. We get the classic mark of all modern teen movies: popular music playing all the time, even when it's completely inappropriate to the mood of the scene. We get every cliched bit of foreshadowing imaginable: from the characters being introduced at the exact spot where you know the final conflict is going to take place; to the emphasis on creaking stairs that you know are going to be important later on. It also follows that grand teen movie tradition of being a touch on the predictable side. By that, I mean half the time I could guess what characters were going to say before their mouths opened. Last, but not least, we have the two staples of all brainless teen films: a three minute exposition explaining the plot at the start; and an ending that everyone knew was bound to happen in exactly the way it occurs.
To be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of Mary Lambert before seeing this movie, and now I see why. Apparently, she was the one responsible for 1989's reprehensible Stephen King adaption "Pet Semetary". I must have put a mental block over her name without knowing it. Her trademark travesties in "The In Crowd" appear to be three fold: first, she sticks in lesbian undertones amongst several of the girls for no apparent reason (there is one brief explanation of some of this, but doesn't account for it all); two, the camera work is horrendous - jumping around from scene to scene with no consistency (think Oliver Stone's "technique" doubled and used all the time); last, the pacing is nonexistent, speeding way up during scenes that could have been vaguely interesting if they had tried, and slowing down at points in the movie no one could care less about. I'd recommend "The In Crowd" to two groups of people: those who love teen movies (assuming such people exist); and those who just want to stare at people in bathing suits for over an hour (I know those people exist). The movie runs 100 minutes, which is about an hour and a half too long. I give it a sadly generous two out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.all-reviews.com/reviewers/JohnBeachem.htm, http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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