I think it was in the bottom tier of indie movies, not as good as 'The Spectacular Now', but in that same category...Not compelling, original, or interesting enough to be great. It's very cliche and just because it knows that, doesn't make the execution any better. The script lacked moments of poignancy and didn't capture high school or youth for the most part in a convincing or memorable way. I did like Earl, though I thought at times the writing for his character was more then a little insulting, and unneeded. His brother was a very uncomfortable stereotype, that seemed to serve no purpose, other then to show a black man smoking blunts and shouting off cliches with a pitbull, that was really in bad taste. It's like a C movie to me. Maybe C+. The main character was so needlessly underexplored and over wrought with bullshyt, that never rang true enough to matter to me.