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Daydream Nation

Year: 2010
Production Co: Screen Siren Pictures
Director: Michael Goldbach
Writer: Michael Goldbach
Cast: Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas, Andie MacDowell

I nearly switched this movie off except that I'm a big fan of Kat Dennings and there was enough uniqueness in it to keep me mildly interested.

Unfortunately the uniqueness (an industrial fire burning out of town that can't be put out and seems to be a metaphor for something and the serial killer stalking the teenage population, for instance) doesn't really go anywhere, and as Caroline, Dennings is so unlikeable you have a hard time watching her.

Playing a high school girl who moves to the proverbial flyspeck town, there's nothing to do but take drugs and try to shag the boys she has her eye on, including hapless teacher Barry (Lucas) and sad sack Thurston, who does nothing but sit around with his friends smoking pot.

I'm hard pressed now to remember what it's actually about, but I have a feeling that's because the above description of the plot covers it. When she snares a grown man who should know much better and then a young man thinking with his hormones, she strings them both along quite cruelly, using the threat of abandonment as a tool to keep them in line. Worse still, there doesn't seem to be any point in her doing so, and when it all comes unstuck and Caroline feels so upset, you'll just be shaking your head and asking what she expected.

Had some merits, it just jettisons a story and characters in the pursuit of being Milennial-cool.

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