Wasted on the Young

Wasted on the Young's pulsating soundtrack, immediate direction by first time filmmaker Lucas ... and Leanne Cole's hectic editing all lend the film a vibrancy that is sorely lacking in a lot of cinema these days.

A scorching ultra modern morality fable that uses school grounds, party houses and internet connections as stomping grounds for social allegory.

Visually impressive, but the script needed a big angry red pen taken to it. Oh, and does every character need to shuffle around like they're in a My Chemical Romance video clip?

Wasted on the Young is a slick and striking film that presents a disturbingly recognisable world of plutocratic rule in the dark heart of Australian society.

The icy, stone-faced performances from an obviously committed young cast don't help matters.

It's very, very strikingly done.

Wasted on the Young packs an emotional and visual punch, yet its lack of likeable characters and inherently despairing attitude makes this one cynically violent trip back to the school yard.

I'm not convinced that there's a clear message but this is still a film worth your attention. The editing is sharp and the cinematography is striking.

Sadly the plot falls short of its director's aspirations, and given his obvious filmic talents this is all the more disappointing.

Part romantic tragedy, part ruthless thriller, Wasted on the Young is an impressive but ultimately unsettling cinematic experience.

The film transcends the trappings of a traditional teen parable. It becomes something closer to Rian Johnson's masterful Brick, in which a bunch of film noir archetypes were anachronistically transported into a high school, just for the hell of it.