Dare, High School Sex

Film from first-time director Adam Salky explores the sexual awakening of three high school seniors ** 2 stars
By Jennifer Huber

Ashleigh Springer, Emmy Rossum and Zach Gilford in Dare

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 11/13/2009 – “Most of the laughs in the film are from the tension and release, and the audience re-living the anxiety of those first fumbling steps toward experiencing sexuality,” says Dare director Adam Salky. “Since Dare deals with a lot of the awkwardness of adolescent sexuality, I wanted humor and comedy to come from that. Through the course of the film, I hope the audience feels an emotional progression, not just with the stories and the characters, but also with the visuals and the music.”

Dare, distributed by Image Entertainment, explores and plays with high school stereotypes proving that one can’t quite ever really know what motivates a person or what lies beneath the surface without getting involved emotionally. Emmy Rossum, Ashley Springer and Zach Gilford discover how quickly sex can change things. Dividing the film into three acts, Dare reveals each character’s perspective.

“High school is an intense period of life in America, when we’re all obsessed with how others perceive us, how we are treated, where we stand,” says Dare screenwriter David Brind. “Part of the rite of passage is the moment in which we realize that our actions have effects, even indelible ones, on others. The story’s fraught with a lot of emotions that I like writing about…desire, tension, conflict, shame, joy.”

“Dare is a story about the need to take chances when you’re young in order to find out who you are, or who you’re not,” says Salky. “I wanted to tell a story where an audience could feel the intensity of adolescent desire…especially when directed at people who aren’t really attainable.”

Dare is Adam Salky’s feature debut as a director. Salky and Brind developed Dare from a short they worked on at Columbia University.

Rossum, Springer and Gilford have chemistry, although at times the acting seems forced. One of the brightest acting spots in the movie is a brief role played by Alan Cumming as an high school alumni who “made it” as an actor.

The three-act structure is interesting in that each act has a different feel than the others, but some parts seem to drag. Dare was filmed entirely in Pennsylvania.

Dare

Distributor: Image Entertainment

Running Time: 90 minutes

Release Date: November 13, 2009

MPAA Rating: Rated R for sexual content, language and alcohol use, all involving teens