Bang, Bang You're Dead

Originally airing on Showtime, this multiple Emmy-winning made-for-cable movie serves up a depressingly real depiction of the horrors of high school. After enduring physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the swaggering football team at Rivervale High, student Trevor Adams (Ben Foster) responds by planting a fake bomb in the school. A year later, Trevor is a pariah among both students and administrators, except for one teacher (Tom Cavanagh), whose attempt to reach out to the young man--casting him in a production of Bang, Bang You're Dead, a real play about a school shooting that has been performed all over the U.S.--doesn't sit well with the powers that be. Stark, grim, yet honest, this is a bitter film about the toxic atmosphere in which our children are educated today, where censorship substitutes for tolerance, kids are sent to "anger management" sessions (but no adult will listen to what they have to say), and security guards search book bags but no one tries to find the source of adolescent rage. While there are no answers here, the film raises the right questions. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)