Dark and lonely am I laying in my bed scrolling through the YouTube recommended videos list. Around 3 am. I catch a glimpse of a thumbnail with a girl lifting her top and I think, "Well, what is this?" I watched this trailer. And then I watched it again. And I remember saying to myself, "This movie looks heavy." At that point, I forgot about the girl lifting up her top. I sit upright on my bed, thinking about this trailer. And mind you, I am a very easy person to win over with a good trailer. Eventually I go to sleep, and I completely forget about the movie. A few months later, I stumble across it on Netflix and yelled aloud, "Hey! Isn't that the one movie from that thing?" For me, going into this movie, I had a brittle idea of what it was about. And it started, and it all started coming back to me. But I felt different emotions than the one I felt with the trailer. When the trailer showed me the chemistry of the two friends, I saw loneliness in the film. When it showed me how much of a whacked out cheese ball revenge flick it can be, I saw compelling obsession. Very easy to see where this movie came from, where it drew from its influences, in terms of style and themes. This is the product of when you mix Taxi-Driver and Thhe Catcher in the Rye. Superb.

If I had a word for The Dirties, that word would be fresh. Even with some questionable choices in regard to filming, The Dirties comes into it's own with character. This is a movie that strives on realism. Most films can contain great dialogue, but then only to distract from it's own realism; I really felt like all characters were holding real genuine conversations. The believability of the two main characters, Matt and Owen, is undeniable, and in addition to that found in their friendship, the lead and execution of the premise remains strong throughout. Without going into mental health clichés, both characters seem to have genuine reasoning and path to their decision making, with Matt Johnsons character seeming to have a real inability to cope with confrontation. Even then, elements in the movie aren't made to lead or force them to their decisions, but rather to support them. Often in anti-bullying movies all is lost by the campaign of the movie itself, but The Dirties contains a strong energy and drive throughout. The best thing that I can say about it really, is that it's not bad, it's really not bad. In everything that it does well, it does impressively well. The faceless filmer leaves a menacing undertone, with all acknowledgment of his character being brief and interesting. Lastly, it's final leaves the viewer in awe, ending at the most perfect moment of it's screen time. A very underrated classic 9/10

Matt and Owen are best friends at the same high school. They are sort of geeky and as such are continually being picked on and bullied by their class mates - who are obviously a bunch of cowards as all bullies are. They are doing a class project in which they have to make a film. This is right up their street as they are both mad movie buffs. So they decide to make a film about how they take revenge on the bullies - as they call them 'the dirties' - and use as many filmic references as possible.This all seems well and good, only one of them is slightly more serious than the other - cue the mayhem.Well this is a rather well made indie and you can tell a lot of heart and soul has gone into the production. There are some really good lines and some well observed pieces too especially regarding relationships and movie making. The acting is all surprisingly good too. The only issue may be the way some of the action pans out but that will be a matter of taste for the viewer. All in all they pack an awful lot into the 80 minute run time. I would rate as 7/10 as I always appreciate a good and original indie production.

I desperately wanted to like this movie. I saw the preview a week ago and just last night saw it was added to Netflix, I couldn't click on it fast enough. Here was a movie that was going to examine high school bullying through the eyes of those being bullied, here was a movie that was going to show high schoolers not self-reporting when a student tells them they are going to commit a violent act, here's a movie that is going to explain how teachers are completely unaware of what their students are up to right before they commit the heinous act of a school shooting. But no, in no way is that the movie that was made.**SPOILERS** The movie opens with the mains, and apparent co-writers Matt and Owen, presenting their high school movie to the drama teacher. The movie clearly shows the students committing violent acts against fellow students, a gang they've nicknamed "The Dirties" (clever movie name amright?), as well as misrepresenting agreed upon clips of the teacher himself. Instead of reporting the students to any sort of higher authority, the teacher simply tells them to remove the language and make the movie "PG". What follows is a sad excuse at character study, showing the apparently insanely shallow friendship between two supposed best friends who actually know nothing about the character of the other person. Owen is an outcast who wants to be accepted, Matt is an outcast who wants revenge; Owen listens to Matt's psycho ideas and sees the degree that he has taken them to (pulling blueprints from local government, taking photos of the future victims), and fails to report him even after he backs out of the plan. This all purportedly happening so far after Columbine that Matt is actually reading the book on the shooting and antagonizing his friend and then his mother into offering their analysis of his mental state.In the end, we see an ill conceived school attack in which two teachers catch the eventual shooter setting up his cameras, they back off without question despite living in an era of increased school violence, then the movie ends with a ridiculous confrontation that offers no conclusion. This movie very much reminds me of an eighth grade writing assignment I had to complete regarding suspense, and this ending may have been even worse than mine, which involved an American soldier confronting a reincarnated Hitler with the possibility of ending WWIII. Yes, World War THREE. I'd still rather see that ending than the one I saw in this movie.For those reviewers that support the shaky camera as though the viewer is in on the act, during the movie the cameraman is referenced twice, when he is offered popcorn and when he is mentioned by name. That is to say, there were two other people who had definitive knowledge of the heinous act that the character (maybe the writer/actor/director's true desire but was too afraid?) intended to carry out but did not report it. This is not a movie that should be celebrated or shown to high school teens as a movie against bullying, this movie did not examine the impact of the violent acts on their own families, the families of the victims, and most of all, on the victims themselves. Anything less concerning school shootings is simply using that as a gimmick for a horror movie, where once again, this movie falls sorely short. I hope that the writer of this movie is able to get over the bullying that happened to him, believe me when I say I know it sucks, I could especially relate to the scene where the student was antagonizing the main characters from behind during a class, but there is no need to celebrate violence in schools during a time when instances of school violence are increasing at an alarming pace. The people who are celebrating this movie appear to be so wrapped up in the movie world that they fail to realize how this movie could affect younger, bullied viewers, which is dangerous and irresponsible.I hope that the Matt and Owen can go on to have great success in the movie industry, I just hope that they have a better grasp on what they're portraying as they move forward.