This allegory of an America ever under construction examines, in a nuanced, even-handed manner, the money-obsessed mindset of adults, parents and entrenched authorities no less than the hostile recalcitrance of errant youth on their road to nowhere.

Jonathan Kaplan's Over the Edge is a sensitive and deceptively shocking portrait of middle-class decadence and alienation set against an impersonal, dehumanized, futuristic Sunbelt society.

Script, photography and performances (including Dillon before he decided to become a teenage Stallone) are all top notch, while Kaplan directs with pace, imagination, and a fine ear for dialogue and music.

Dillon makes his movie debut in this rebellious but bleak drama inspired by a 1973 newspaper article about a real-life California town.