After exploring the lives of dead-end kids in the big city in Hurricane Streets, director Morgan J. Freeman turns his attention to troubled small-town teens. Life is slow in Baxter, California (population 86), until a tanker carrying the secret ingredient of a soft drink crashes, the driver dies under mysterious circumstances, and the FBI quarantines the town. As the townsfolk wait to learn whether the spill was toxic, the local youths, joined by a stranded teen TV star (Kate Hudson), ponder their fates between funneling beers and chugging whiskey. Blue (Brendan Sexton III) dreams of completing his deceased father's desert water park; Ely (Christina Ricci), an explosives freak, fantasizes about blowing herself up in front of her parents. The story plays out slowly, echoing the pace of life in the town, and in a desert of teen flicks that achieve fulfillment through material gratification, social status, or triumphing over a psycho, it's refreshing to find one with intelligence and maturity.