Tart Reviews

In this blast at the privileged classes, yet another young social climber discovers the bitter accuracy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation about the very rich: "They are different from you and me." Teenager Cat Storm (Dominique Swain) attends the posh Hewitt School on New York's Upper East Side, and pines to join the in-crowd. When her best friend, Delilah (Bijou Phillips), is suspended for a prank, the reformed Cat turns her back on her trouble-making pal. Cat also has a major crush on William Sellers (Brad Renfro), the most popular boy in class. Cat longs to be part of the loving home life of her new best friend, wealthy Grace (Mischa Barton); while Grace has every advantage, Cat is unappreciated at home and has to wheedle cash out of her divorced dad. Though Cat doesn't make the grade on the financial score, she's pretty enough to be invited to her snooty peers' necking parties. There Cat meets an older hanger-on, Kenny (Scott Thompson), who supplies recreational drugs for the teenagers' soirees. While Hewitt's hallowed halls buzz with news of a sex scandal involving Delilah's father, Cat's inner circle hides its own secrets: One of Cat's elite friends is robbing the families of classmates. Cat loses her virginity to William and samples cocaine, but she can't keep up with her rich, spoiled friends. Cat crashes a party in the Hamptons and runs into Delilah, who discovers that William not only sells drugs but also turns tricks for Kenny's gay buddies; that knowledge leads to tragedy. If Cat's going to grow up, she'll have to face the fact that William is no Prince Charming and she's much less shallow than the snobs she admired. Like such social-guidance thrillers as THE IN CROWD (2000), NEW BEST FRIEND (2002) and CRUEL INTENTIONS (1999), this film hammers home the dangers of middle-class discontentment. But this expose doesn't elicit much sympathy for characters whose big dreams amount to little more than lust for a better grade of cashmere.