7.5/10. Very good first feature based on the conceit of rendering the traditional noir with all its trapping of a dead girl, dirty deals and a double-crossing femme fatale in the environment of a modern American high school replete with jocks, the ‘upper crust’ and jaded loners who eat alone.
As the plot zig-zags vertiginously this way and that the film occassionaly risks veering into parody but it ultimately manages to keep on course. In so doing it delivesr an impressive double whammy by simultaneously providing a new, and engaging, take on two very hackneyed genres: the high-school movie and the film noir.