Even though the high school culture in this movie is not something I'm familiar with as someone not from the West, I've seen how it works through various movies. But the other side of it, the scandal aspect is something I've heard has happened even here. And you always get so surprised and disgusted with how it happens and not only that but how this many people can be involved with such acts. I thought this movie made a somewhat good depiction of how even the most unassuming people can turn into that. Although, if I wasn't familiar with American teenage movies and how the relationships work in such movies, I wouldn't have been able to think there was any truth in how things turned out in this. So, this felt real only because of my exposure to other movies, which could be totally wrong. The movie was still trying to make the main character more sympathetic than necessary by including a lot of things that are just in bad faith. The acting was really good overall and there were some things that worked very well but it also had a limited focus on what to tell which didn't really make it really good.
Another thing that this movie really made me think of is how especially these kinds of stories are undermined by having older actors. This movie could have had no explicit scenes at all and made the actors actually look like teenagers and the impact would've been huge. The horror and disgust would really bring out the point even if nothing explicit is shown. The fact that it shows a bit with the actors who are obviously older really negates a lot of impact and also makes the crime look lesser. The audience should understand that these are kids and not grown people which is a fact all the movies constantly try to erase. I really didn't think about it before that much but this movie kind of made me understand why that is important.
