Tart Movie Review

Misleading title alert!

Not only does the provocative title of Tart mislead us, but the packaging features a lithe Dominique Swain on its covers, her schoolgirl skirt blowing up to expose her panties. The tagline: "Sex, Drugs and Study Hall."

Well, there's no study hall in tart, and there's precious little sex and drugs. Most of the sex that is there is performed by an older guy on the teenagers (most of them male) in this movie, whom he plies with cash and cocaine in order to receive their favors.

But that's hardly what the story is about. The film follows outcast Cat Storm (Swain), a prep school girl alienated from the fancy lads (like Brad Renfro and Lacey Chabert) until she starts dating Renfro's William. But William smokes, steals, and in the end, he does even worse stuff. And Cat gets alienated again. And the movie ends right about there.

The structure of the film is nonexistent (and in other words, there's little plot to hold together a series of oddball scenes), and the acting is perfunctory -- Mischa Barton's horrendous British accent a grating exercise in poor voice coaching and a director too in love with her own material to even notice.