Prime example of "High Tash". Jenna Ortega is the daughter of rich, absentee parents, who is just starting her senior year at a middle Tennessee public high school. Jenna is passionate about literature, and bemoans that she is not very interesting; she aspires to be a writer but fears she dosen't have anything to write about. After the idea is jokingly planted in her mind by a friend, Jenna sets out to seduce and ruin the life of her English teacher Martin Freeman, a failed author with one unsuccessful book to his credit.
The minimalist story feels like a once salacious stage play in the tradition of 'The Children's Hour', which flirts, teases and implies but never quite crosses the uncrossble line. Fine performances make the movie watchable, but it's never as deep and probing as it wishes it were. A meta tale about cliche and failed writers, that gilds a trawdry story to demonstrate the pain of not quite measuring up, and ironically succeeds in so doing. **1/2
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