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Slackers
 cast: Jason Swartzman, Devon Sawa, Laura Prepon, and James King

director: Dewey Nicks

87 minutes (R) 2002
Sony NTSC video rental

RATING: 7/10
 reviewed by Amy C. Adair
Slackers is the directorial debut of Dewey Nicks. It chronicles the story of Dave, Jeff, and Sam; three college guys who would rather concoct elaborate schemes to cheat instead of actually doing any work. Just as they are preparing to graduate, the nerdy 'Cool' Ethan (Swartzman) catches them cheating, and blackmails them into setting him up with Angela, the girl of his dreams (King). The plot gets complicated when Dave falls in love with Angela, and she is tugged between Ethan the stalker and Dave the scammer.
   Some of the funniest moments of this movie were incite by Angela's sex-maniac roommate, Reanna (played by Prepon of That 70's Show). I would have liked to see her allotted more screen time. Cool Ethan deserves a mention too: his character was the type of guy we love to hate. Other characters have their revealing moments, like when Jeff (Michael C. Marona) goes off on a tangent about how he wants to live in a place where there are no women - but he wants to make it very clear that he's not gay. But one of the main characters, Dave, remains sadly underdeveloped.
   The great thing about this movie is that it successfully achieves the outrageously shocking moments American Pie tried, and failed, to capture. But, like Pie, this movie's plot was improbable and fairly holey. The twists and turns are contrived and the viewer tends to get lost. Still, I think it was worth the rental price, if only for the chance to see Swartzman talking (among other things) to a doll made of his imagined girlfriend's hair.
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