I liked this movie but at first I was bothered by the dialog. I knew nothing about it except the names of the main actor and director and a little bit about them. I knew of Joseph from 3rd Rock from the sun and I hadn't seen brothers bloom but knew bout Rian from the slashfilm podcast. i was not expecting that style of speech so it threw me off for a while but as the story progressed I got into it. The actors do a wonderful job that completely distracts from any short comings created by the very low budget. The director did a good job making the camera mostly seem natural except for the parts where the main character gets punched. Probably the thing I like most about the movie is the almost creepy way the hard boiled noir story is so easily placed onto a high school setting. It says tons about how dramatic and dark being in school is.