HOME ROOM (2002)

Synopsis: Two high school girls with widely different backgrounds and goals come to know each other in the aftermath of a shooting at the high school that they both attend. Directed by Paul F. Ryan. Starring Busy Phillips, Erika Christensen, Victor Garber, James Pickens, Agnes Bruckner 

Low budget does not equal low quality when you have a great story, good acting, and good direction. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is the best recipe for a good flick.

The story begins in the aftermath of a school shooting...we see the distraught S.W.A.T officer, some bodies laying around, but never the shooter or the shootings themselves. After that morbid start, we meet Alicia (Busy Phillips White Girls)  a goth dressing girl who is not popular with her classmates and is a little older, having missed a couple of years of school for reasons that are not made clear until later in the movie.

Alicia is thought to be the girlfriend of the now deceased shooter, and therefore attracts a lot of attention from the lead investigator (Victor Garber Titanic) on the case. Alicia seems strangely detached and unemotional about the massacre, in fact pitching a fit when she comes to school the next day only to find the school, understandably, closed.

After going off on her principal about the lack of a place to study-after all, she is failing English and desperately wants to finally graduate. Instead she reluctantly agrees to be the only student from the school who will go the hospital to visit the bright but unpopular Deanna (Erika Christensen Traffic).

And there we have the movie, the strained beginnings of a deep and difficult friendship between two young women who are so alone for such different reasons. It works because of the work of Phillips and Christensen. The premise upon which there meeting is based is a little far fetched...Alicia is the only person to regularly visit Deanna, even her parents (Huh? The girl's been shot!)  But, when you put that aside, there is the nice story of how these two come to view each other and, of course, themselves.

Really, the film is not about a school shooting so much as it is about the way we relate to other people and how easy it is to see someone every day and not really know them. Yeah, all of this sounds kind of corny, but its real and when you can tap into that fact with a compelling script, its going to be pretty good.

The two lead actresses have to carry this and they do, especially Phillips. It doesn't work otherwise and fans of these two actresses will definitely want to see this one if at all possible. Also, one of the special features in the DVD deserves note, which is the screening of the film at Columbine High School, the site of probably the most infamous school massacre. Powerful stuff, to say the least.

So, my suggestion-if you decide ot accept it- is to channel your old school days and go to Home Room.