Alpha Dog has suprising bite.

In a world where music videos influence the social structure of teen culture one boy finds himself kidnapped and held for the $1200 dollar debt his brother owes.

Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) leads his gang of suburban miscreants as they echo the life they see on T.V. With parents that are absentee, unrelatable or equally troubled these kids learn to rely on each other. When a debt by Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster) goes unpaid Johnny Truelove orders that Jake’s younger brother Zach (Anton Yelchin) be taken and held as incentive. Soon treated like one of the gang, Zach chooses to stay, enjoying a world of excess he has not yet become privy to. Frankie Ballenbacher (Justin Timberlake) while assigned by Johnny Truelove to watch Zach forms a brotherly friendship with him. Soon, though, the group realizes that the consequences of this little stunt are severe. Threatened with a lifetime in prison Johnny tries to convince his minions to murder.

This movie was a mixed bag. Filled with actors in their teens and early twenties (including Justin Timberlake) I was not expecting depth in the acting. The younger actors (and especially Justin Timberlake) played their roles with such subtle nuance that I forgot I was watching a sex and drug fueled teen movie. Sharon Stone, who play’s Zach’s mother Olivia Mazursky, should take lessons from her younger counterparts, as she uses this film to recycle the same clichéd angry screaming character we’ve seen in Casino and other films. If I see her scream and wimpily beat up on a costar one more time I might just have to nominate her for a Razzie lifetime achievement award.

The film is fascinating as it examines the social structure of this group. The alpha dog’s hold on his pack is sometimes very clear as he deals with the boys at the bottom of the ladder, but it becomes fascinating when Johnny gives orders to the people just below him. To see how differently Johnny approaches each person with the same request is captivating.

What disappointed me about this film was the decision to spend a lot of time filming the fun and fluff of their life and not concentrate on the motivation of the characters. How did they get here? Why is their moral compass so loose? In my eyes it’s a long way from absentee parents to willing to take orders to kidnap and kill.