Dare

The Truth About Dare
Not since Threesome (1994), which born-again Stephen Baldwin has since disowned, has there been such a daring coupling of two men and one woman on screen. The tagline of that earlier film, "One girl. Two guys. Three possibilities," might have been adopted for Dare as well. The elephant in the room is the excellent Dare (2005) short included on the Blu-ray disc. While the swimming pool "dare" scene that is most of the short also appears in the new film, it has been truncated for no obvious reason, and it is not one of the deleted scenes. The new film also suffers by comparison because the chemistry between Johnny and Ben seems stronger in the short.

The new film is really not a gay film anymore. Alexa, who is peripheral to the short, drives the new film from the opening frames. Johnny's backstory of a distant father and a youthful stepmother certainly explains his vulnerability, but his friends are not...

A must see - becomes a must own
There is an accepted lie that is told by Hollywood teen films: That everyone falls into types. The Geeky guy, the Jock, the hanger on, the bookish girl, the slutty girl, etc. as reliable as the characters tropes in a WWII men on a mission film. You know what you are getting, and everyone fulfills their roles in the formula. And its a winning formula every time From "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", to "The Breakfast Club", even lesser fare like "Bring it On" make this work. And its a fun fantasy.

DARE exists in the Twilight Zone of those films. We start in the very familiar teen film world Soccer Star; Stage Crew nerd; Star Student, and act by act, character by character deconstruct it all until we are left with three very real and very vulnerable teens who are in over their heads. It doesn't matter if you were like the one of the characters (and chances are you were) someone you know was.

Emmy Rossum shrugs off her Hollywood training and digs deep for all that is...

The Kids Are Not All Right, But they Will Be--A Surprisingly Effective And Daring High School Drama
With its high school setting and the evocative title "Dare," I was prepared for this film to be either a standard teenage romp or perhaps a cautionary tale about alienated youth causing mischief. In fact, it is a rather sensitively wrought tale of conflicted emotions and youth struggling for identity. Blurring lines between sex and friendship, "Dare" introduces a somewhat accidental threesome that is as intriguing as it is believable. This non-traditional bond is purely unintentional with each party seeking something from the relationship that will never be fully realized. Earnest, and even heartbreaking, the film grows more disturbing as it progresses--with the teens both liberating one another while causing emotional damage.

The film is split into three parts--one to represent each of the young protagonists. Emmy Rossum effectively plays an overachiever who doesn't quite click with the popular crowd. When paired for an assignment with rebel jock Zach Gilford, she...

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