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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: There are multiple ways to read everybody. For starters, was Laura telling the truth when she said that Brendan was the father of Emily's child?
  • Awesome Music: It's an odd example, but there's something deeply thrilling about Laura's calm, self-assured recitation of "The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze."
  • Complete Monster: Laura Dannon is a seemingly innocent upperclassman and potential Love Interest to Brendan Frye, but she is in truth a manipulative, ambitious puppet master. Laura stole and poisoned a brick of cocaine from the Pin, ruining his reputation as a drug lord when the cocaine sent several users into the hospital. Framing her own best friend Emily for the theft, Laura tricked the pregnant girl into signing her own death warrant by enraging Emily's boyfriend Tug into beating her to death. To completely eradicate her competition and tie up all loose ends, Laura uses Brendan to arrange a meeting between the Pin and Tug, then sparks conflict between the two that results in the deaths of half a dozen students in a Gang War. Having put Brendan himself in the crossfire to succeed in her plans, Laura's only recourse when she is exposed is to callously reveal to Brendan that Emily was pregnant with his child, Laura hoping that these cruel words haunt him for life as payback for stopping her schemes.
  • He Really Can Act: This film was a strong push in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's efforts to move beyond his sitcom heritage and into the realm of serious, edgy film roles.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • "Nine out of ten". Laura tells Brendan that Emily's baby was his.
    • The moment when Brendan finally cracks, after so long of being The Stoic. No subdued weeping or single tears here; just full-on, helpless, body-shaking sobbing while Laura holds him.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Sure, Emily is Brendan's Lost Lenore, but she still left him because he didn't want her cozying up to drug dealers. After their break-up she apparently dives headfirst into the school's underbelly, doing drugs, making friends with sinister characters, and trying to sleep her way to the top, all simply because she's desperate to be popular. Even after she comes back into his life uninvited, begging for help, she still changes her mind and tells him to back off. After all that, he still tries to help her (and avenge her death when he can't).
  • The Woobie:
    • Even before Emily dies, she's terrified, over her head, and without anyone she really trusts.
    • Dode died believing the girl he loved and protected had been killed by her ex while pregnant with Dode's child, and it turns out the kid probably wasn't his.
    • Brendan is more of a Jerkass Woobie, between his treatment of Emily and Kara, his cruelty to Dode, and leaving the Pin to die, but he gets put through the wringer.

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