96. Dare

Alexa (Emmy Rossum) is a total uptight nerd obsessed with getting good grades and nailing her scene for her drama class.  Unfortunately she has been paired up with Johnny (Zach Gilford), a burn out jock that doesn't give a shit about anything other than himself.  When a guest director, Grant Matson (Alan Cumming), sits on their rehearsal he notices that Johnny has a raw talent.  But it's Alexa that wants to be an actress.  She asks to get some pointers from him after class.  He tells her that she needs more life experience so she has something to inspire her actions on stage. 

She takes the advice very seriously and after crying her eyes out, she takes the morning off for a mental health day.  When she does get to school she is an uber bitch mode and when she curses and yells at a teacher, she gets detention for the first time in her life.  After school she has her friend and give her a slut makeover before they go to a party at Johnny's house.  Obviously he is intrigued by her new skanky appearance (typical dude).  She gets him alone and decides she should get some "life experience" by sleeping with him. 

But it must have worked because people seemed to enjoy their rather risque performance which is totally inappropriate for high school students to do.  In fact, her curly mop head friend Ben (Ashley Springer) gets all annoyed, feeling she is ditching him for the cool kids.  Perhaps it's because he has a crush on Johnny.  One night, he gives Johnny a ride home and they proceed to drink a bottle of champagne by the pool.  Ben makes a proposition that fails, but when he brings up the fact that he is about to graduate and has never kissed anyone Johnny kisses him.  Even though Johnny is constantly giving him the just friend vibe, Ben decides to ignore it and just kind of latches on to Johnny until he caves and lets him. 

With a new gusto on life, Ben goes home and tells Alexa all about it.  When Johnny is trapped at home, he has no one else to call but Ben to come and pick him up.  Alexa, Ben, and Johnny then proceed to hang out, while Alexa and Ben try to compete for Johnny's attention. 

Well.  I can say it wasn't dull.  But these teens are kind have f*cked up.  It was funny to see Saracen be an asshole in the beginning before you realize that there's more to him than typical popular jock.  The story was told in basically three parts.  The first focused on Alexa, the second on Ben, and the last on Johnny so it was interesting to see each character grow during their scene.  Ben creeped me out though.  He was just way pushy.  The best character by far was Johnny.  I actually felt bad for him at the end because they just seemed to be using him the whole movie.

Rating:  ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTqKkA0Ch_c