Daydream Nation

There are three types of people that will continuously rave about Daydream Nation. Affected hipsters that think they are the only ones who can recognize the artists involved in the ultra-hip soundtrack; pretentious emos who think Kat Denning is the second coming of Jesus; and the overly nostalgic who spent a good chunk of their '90s reading anything that was written by Ethan Hawke. Writer/director Mike Goldbach panders to these individuals, as well as entertaining the small percentage of people who can relate to small town hopes, goals and failures, in his debut film of teenage debauchery. If Twin Peaks was directed by Gregg Araki, then viewers will have some idea what they're getting into as they witness 17-year-old Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) complain for the entirety of the film about how lonely it is to be smarter and cooler than everybody else in the small town she's forced to move to. As complex as Caroline may think she is, her every action and thought is completely predictable, especially when she seduces her handsome high school teacher (Josh Lucas) while cock-teasing a genuinely sweet stoner classmate named Thurston (Reece Thompson) who she's more compatible with. Throw in precocious teen angst with an out of leftfield serial killer subplot and a splash of blatantly Canadian pop culture references and you pretty much have all the ingredients a director needs for an über-cult phenomenon. Daydream Nation is full of moments of eye-rolling pretension, but Goldbach is also able to add some depth to each of his characters without having them sound all the same, like those from a Diablo Cody penned work. Daydream Nation's DVD features simply consist of upcoming eOne trailers, a five-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and a misspelled typo of "triangle" on the film's back cover.