Set in the San Gabriel Valley in the dog days of 1999 and inspired by the real-life events leading to the death of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, writer-director Nick Cassavetes' Alpha Dog takes its place — seizes, more like it — alongside movies like Kids, Thirteen, and Lords of Dogtown in the canon of rowdy, vulgar adolescent flicks that confirm (or even surpass) adults’ worst suspicions about teenagers.

If ultimately less than insightful, the film is stylish, adrenaline-charged and insistent — qualities that initially serve it well in holding one’s attention. Still, it unfolds at only one heightened pitch, eventually revealing itself as little more than a sugar rush of sweaty, nicely photographed delinquency. For the full review, from CityBeat, click here.