Concrete Playground

Whether you loved it or loathed it, high school definitely left its mark. From the hormones to the house parties, everyone is guaranteed to have a horror story or two, which makes you wonder just how filmmaker Ben C. Lucas fared on the playground, for his striking debut Wasted on the Young sure doesn’t pull any punches.
Polished to a high gloss befitting Hollywood, Lucas has further borrowed a few well-trodden tropes from the high school movie catalogue, with an added Australian twist: the jocks all hark from the swim team, and everyone is kitted out in school uniforms (keep an eye out for the school bags with airplane belt buckle straps). But hierarchy and bullying, it seems, are universal, as Lucas navigates these treacherous waters with a coolly detached but discerning eye.

The reigning king of the high school is swim team captain Zack (Alex Russell), who has a particularly nasty thug of a 2IC (T.J. Power) as well as a newly minted stepbrother Darren (Oliver Ackland), who proves useful for little more than homework assignments. But when Darren takes a shine to super cute Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens), Zack takes the opportunity to show them both their place in the pecking order. Xandrie is assaulted then essentially excommunicated from school society, and in this social wasteland she and Darren unite to contemplate morality, and revenge.

Part romantic tragedy, part ruthless thriller, Wasted on the Young is an impressive but ultimately unsettling cinematic experience. Lucas, his cinematographer Dan Freene and production designer Sam Hobbs have crafted a seriously good looking specimen, while editor Leanne Cole works with Lucas’ script to work up some sharp and confounding temporal elisions. Similarly, the young cast put up impressive performances, with Ackland a fittingly effacing teen pushed to the edge and Power an amped up borderline sadist. With a rather flat affect, Russell is probably the weakest link, but Clemens is a real find, as her sweetness turns steely with scene-stealing results.

In a film cleverly devoid of adults, the students of Wasted on the Young wreak enough havoc to start some high school worthy gossip. The problem is, these shenanigans cross some controversial boundaries, namely the massacres of Columbine and Virginia Tech, both of which are directly referenced en route to the revenge scenario. This distinctly muddies the film’s moral waters, which may well poison the viewing for some, or perhaps just seem disquietingly exploitative. Either way, this stylishly provocative film will get you talking, but hopefully not taking a similar trip down memory lane.