Manic review

Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Boy, Interrupted is one way to describe this gritty tale of troubled teens, set in a juvenile mental hospital and shot on grainy DV (isn't everything these days?).

3rd Rock From The Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Lyle, a violent kid banged up for nearly killing a classmate. Can he learn to keep a lid on his hair-trigger temper? Resident shrink Don Cheadle thinks so, but then he has other problems to contend with: a suicidal recluse (Zooey Deschanel), a manic depressive (Michael Bacall) and a young Native American with a dark secret (Cody Lightning).

Comparisons with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest may be inescapable but they're not all unflattering, with Gordon-Levitt and Cheadle both giving fiercely committed performances and director Jordan Melamed making the interesting point that endless external stimuli could be feeding the neuroses of today's mixed-up youth. Yet this semi-improvised drama is never quite as gripping as it could be, with many of the young leads coming across as more stroppy than genuinely screwed-up.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.