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5[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lawn_dogs_poster.jpg]]
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7->'''Trent:''' I'll make you a deal. We can be friends, if you can keep it a secret.\
8'''Devon:''' What's wrong with you and me being friends?
9
101997 drama film starring Creator/SamRockwell and a very young Creator/MischaBarton. It tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a 10-year-old upper-middle-class girl, Devon, with heart problems and a morbid outlook on life, and an eccentric lower-class working stiff, Trent, in a gated community full of upper-middle-class complete jerks in the DeepSouth.
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12Devon is told by her parents not to leave the gates of the community they live in. She does precisely that, and while wandering around, meets Trent, who is poor and lives in a trailer. Fascinated by him, Devon attempts to become friends with him, even sneaking out and lying to her parents to do so. Naturally, Trent realizes that a lower-class grown man hanging out with an upper-middle-class preteen girl is asking for trouble, and tries to shoo Devon away. Eventually, he gives in to her charms.
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14Trent has a number of run-ins with the townspeople who seem to hate or distrust him for being lower-class. Devon witnesses some of these run-ins, along with other events that cause her to become disaffected and turn against society. Much like Trent, Devon rebels in her own eccentric and unusual ways, along with a fair amount of TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour. When the two are together, they share tremendous energy and engage in a great deal of mischief, much of it being Devon's idea.
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16Things come to a violent head, however, when Devon's parents learn about the friendship and misinterpret it.
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18Do ''NOT'' confuse this movie with ''Film/StrawDogs1971'', which is far, far darker.
19
20----
21!!This film provides examples of:
22* AdultsAreUseless: With the possible exception of Trent, the only adult who understands Devon (and not completely).
23** Devon's dad is an elitist who assumes anyone who isn't as wealthy as him simply "isn't trying hard enough".
24** Devon's mother is arguably worse than him, because not only is she just as privileged, she's also [[spoiler:having an affair with Brett.]]
25* AmbiguouslyGay: Sean. Trent seems to pick up on it.
26* AngryGuardDog: Tracker.
27* AntiHero: Two of them, both Devon and Trent.
28* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler: Brett]], to Devon, ironically enough. Contrast her parent's reaction when she tries to tell them a "nice boy" has attacked her to their immediate assumption that Trent is a pedophile.
29* BangBangBang: At the end, [[spoiler:Devon]] firing a pistol with the sound of a rifle.
30* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted somewhat with Devon.
31* BitchInSheepsClothing: Devon's mother is a surprisingly dark example; she appears to be the traditional American housewife, but [[spoiler:she's carrying out an affair with Brett, a younger man behind her husband's back with no remorse]]. More disturbingly, she demands a witch hunt when ''Trent'' [[spoiler:is accused of molesting Devon,]] but is quick to brush off her accusation that ''[[spoiler:Brett]]'' [[spoiler:molested her, even seeming ''jealous'' that he'd want her.]]
32* BrattyHalfPint: The neighborhood boy who bugs people and is actually the one [[spoiler:that stole the street lamps and music from the bullies.]]
33* BurpingContest
34* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:Devon's father's gun.]]
35* CloudCuckoolander: Devon loosely narrates a fantastical version of her life throughout the film, and her conversation patterns have a...''unique'' logic to them.
36* CorruptionByAMinor: Devon convinces Trent to do illegal mischief.
37* CoversAlwaysLie: The box for the US version makes the movie look like some kind of romance involving Trent and a woman, when in fact the woman plays a minor role in the story, and the film is definitely not a romance. Well, it is a (chaste) romance, but between Devon and Trent.
38* CrapsackWorld: Trent and Devon are two of maybe four sympathetic characters in the film.
39* DeepSouth
40* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The last shot of the film switches from color to black and white.
41* DescriptionCut: The security guard and Devon's father are wondering who steals the lamps. Cut to the little boy playing soldier, throwing said lamps around as hand grenades.
42* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Just before [[spoiler: Brett]] attempts to molest Devon, he strokes her face and lips with a bullet, and asks her "Do you wanna know what it feels like to have it go inside?"
43* DoubleStandard: When Devon tells her parents that Brett, the neighbor, was molesting her, they ask questions to double-check the facts, resulting in Devon backing out of the accusation. The parents are visibly relieved that Brett didn't do anything bad (which in reality, he did). Later, when she tells them that Trent, a poor man who works as lawn-mower for the neighborhood, "didn't hurt [her]", they immediately assume that he is a pedophile, and despite Devon trying to reassure them that he didn't molest her, they go after him.
44%%* GainaxEnding
45* HarmfulToMinors: Devon witnesses Trent getting it on with a woman, and later, her own mother cheating on her father. If that's not enough, an adult bully tries to sexually abuse Devon. Then even later, [[spoiler:a cop and her father start beating up Trent, in full view of Devon.]]
46* HeroicBystander: Devon.
47* {{Hypocrite}}: Devon's dad's elitist behaviour. He claims that poor people simply don't work hard enough, yet he's never seen doing any real work himself and from his attitude, it wouldn't be hard to guess he's from a wealthy family.
48* IntergenerationalFriendship: The bond between Devon and Trent is the focal point of the film.
49* JerkJock: The adult bullies.
50* KarmaHoudini:
51** The little boy never gets caught for all the mischief he causes.
52** Brett gets away with having an affair with Devon's mother [[spoiler:and molesting Devon.]]
53* MayDecemberRomance: A very unique take on the trope. Despite the significant age difference between them (more so considering Devon is 10 years old), they seem to be [[BirdsOfAFeather cut from the same cloth]] and quickly develop a strong bond. In fact, Devon [[PrecociousCrush appeared to like Trent first.]] While Trent obviously doesn't do anything to her and has no desire to, the feelings are there between them. However, it's downplayed as not only is it presented as very chaste, the film focuses more on their friendship and the tragedy that comes with such a societal taboo rather than any romantic implications.
54* MercyKill: [[spoiler:After Trent accidentally runs over the dog with his car (well, they were chasing it, but running over was not their intention), he sees that it is badly hurt and dying. He delivers a mercy kill with what he has at hand: in this case, beating it up with a wooden stick. Devon doesn't take his action well. It can be seen that his intentions were not bad by him returning it to the community wrapped in a flag.]]
55* MistakenForPedophile: A non-comedic and quite tragic example.
56* {{Mooning}}: Trent and Devon to the security guard and Devon's father, who are too far away to recognize them, but they do recognize the mooning.
57* MrFanservice: [[ShirtlessScene Even when he does wear a shirt,]] Trent somehow never manages to button it all the way up.
58* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Devon gets angry at Trent [[spoiler:for killing the dog]] and tells everything to her parents. This directly results in him getting MistakenForPedophile [[spoiler:and getting beat up.]]
59* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Part of Trent's backstory, as he was left for dead by some corrupt cops.
60* NotHelpingYourCase: Trent
61* NotWhatItLooksLike: Played seriously.
62* PaedoHunt: Inevitably. Trent and Devon form a close bond and it's clear that neither of Devon's parents are happy about it. Once Devon comes home from her traumatic experience with the dog's MercyKill, they're very quick to assume Trent molested her (despite her protests that he didn't) and try to hunt him down. The real paedo in this is Brett, but unfortunately he gets no real consequences for his actions.
63* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Trent to Devon.
64* PrecociousCrush: Heavily implied. Devon becomes attached to Trent very quickly and her interactions with him give some very firm implications that she has a crush on him, though she's good at hiding it.
65* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou:
66** The little boy near the beginning points his toy pistol at Devon like this.
67** Devon gets this at the end [[spoiler:after she shoots the bully who wants to kill Trent.]]
68* SecretRelationship: Between Devon and Trent. More of a friendship than a romance, but the [[ShipTease implications are very much present.]]
69* SkewedPriorities: Devon's parents pay little mind to her serious accusation of [[spoiler:Brett touching her, with her mother even seeming]] ''[[spoiler:upset that he'd touch her underage daughter instead of her.]]''
70* StepfordSuburbia: It's your standard wholesome American neighborhood. On the outside.
71* SuckOutThePoison: Done in a [[{{Squick}} squicky]] way. Devon sucks on Trent's finger after he cuts it on a chainsaw. He gets disturbed and pulls away.
72* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: A hell of a lot! Even more troubling since Devon acts realistically her age, and therefore does things that are messed up, yet in a realistically childlike way. This is justified by the screenwriter in an [[http://rwor.org/a/1232/naomirwinterview.htm interview:]]
73-->"Also, children are expected to be a certain way, and I like the unexpectedness of how children really are if you watch them. (...) Sometimes children just don't go by the rules, they often have a natural inclination not to, which we as adults have often lost."
74* WeDoNotKnowEachOther: A woman Trent has a fling with later avoids him at a party. Probably because he's poor.
75* WorldOfSymbolism: The film sort of has a literal level but it's very surreal and then at the ending kind of throws the literal story away entirely to continue talking about what it had been talking about the whole time up until then in completely unalloyed abstraction.

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