Teenage Wasteland

High school and hyperbole go hand in hand. In describing grades 9 through 12, most people declare them the “greatest years of my life!” or “four years of living hell!” Perhaps, that’s why it’s so hard – though dozens of filmmakers try each year -- to depict high school on the big screen. There’s little room for subtlety, for finding middle ground.

In 2006, first-time director Jordan Albertsen took a stab at the genre with The Standard, a little-known indie that somewhat successfully navigated the festival rounds but failed to latch onto a distributor. The film landed a Best Director award for Albertsen at the 2007 Phoenix Film Festival, and returns to the Valley.

The Standard features Alex Frost of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (Frost bears more than a passing resemblance to high-school-movie staple John Cusack, by the way) as a senior named Dylan, who’s facing all the pressures that come after school (college, responsibility, real life) while dealing with all the pressures in school (sex, drugs, kids with guns).