Bellyfruit

Young teens having kids is the theme of this overly schematic drama that might best serve as a cautionary program in liberal sex education classes. Carefully representing the dominant ethnic classes--white, Hispanic, and black--of its Los Angeles setting, Bellyfruit follows three girls as they use sex as the common currency to gain acceptance and love. The unknown actors do a convincing job, and director/co-writer Kerri Lee Green doesn't romanticize the problems--morning sickness, crying babies, detached fathers, and the like--of teenage pregnancy and child-raising. Still, Bellyfruit has an artificial programmatic feel that works against its effectiveness as dramatic storytelling. Definitely optional. (T. Rich)