Mean Creek

Mean Creek is a 2004 American independent coming-of-age psychological drama film written and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes and starring Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck, and Carly Schroeder. It was produced by Susan Johnson, Rick Rosenthal, and Hagai Shaham.

The film is about a group of teenagers who devise a plan to get revenge on an overweight, troubled bully during a boating trip. When their plan goes too far, they have to face unexpected consequences. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 15, 2004, and was later screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2004. It was then given a limited release in major US cities on August 20, 2004, mostly playing at art house theaters.

Plot
While overweight school bully George Tooney films himself playing basketball, small and quiet Sam Merric touches George's camera, causing him to mercilessly beat up Sam. Sam tells his older brother Rocky about the situation, to which Rocky tells his friends, reserved Clyde and troubled Marty Blank, thus devising a plan for revenge. Part of the prank involves taking George on a boating trip to celebrate Sam's fictional birthday. Then, they plan to strip him in a game of truth or dare, throw him into the river, and make him run home naked.

Sam invites his new girlfriend Millie along, and Marty drives the group to the river. During the ride, George reveals a different side of himself by being genuinely pleased to be invited and that he's dyslexic. However, Sam doesn't tell Millie the real plan until they arrive near the river. Millie refuses to continue until Sam promises to call the plan off. Sam tells Rocky, who then tells Clyde and Marty, with Marty being very reluctant to do so. Throughout the trip, George clumsily attempts to fit in with the group. Despite this, he also gets confrontational when questioned about his motives (or lack thereof). The group soon realizes that although George is annoying, he's just very lonely and only wants to be socially accepted.

On the boat, Marty deviates from the plan and initiates a game of truth or dare, though the rest decide to go along. After George sprays Marty with a water gun in good fun, he makes a funny quip about Marty's father, not remembering that it's a sore subject as Marty's father committed suicide. This triggers Marty, who exposes the whole plan and starts to ridicule George. Angered and humiliated, George launches into a vulgar tirade against the others, which ends with him crudely mocking Clyde's two gay fathers and even taunting Marty about his deceased father by repeatedly shrieking, "His daddy splattered his brains all over the wall!" As Rocky tries to stop the fight, he accidentally shoves George off the boat and into the water.

Unable to swim, George struggles to remain afloat in the water. As the others watch the scene in terror, George accidentally hits his head with his camera and doesn't come up to the surface. Rocky dives into the water and finds George, who's face down in the shallow water close to the shore. Millie attempts to give George CPR, but it's too late as George is dead. The group is traumatized and in fear of being incarcerated. They dig a hole in the ground and bury George's corpse.

Clyde's plan is to explain to the authorities that it was an accident, but Marty threatens him, reminding Clyde that George's camera (now lost in the water) contains Marty's taped confession of the original plan, and the authorities will find out if the camera is discovered. As they had already tricked George into not telling his mother where he was going, she wouldn't know of their involvement. They later gather at Sam and Rocky's house. Sam, Rocky, Clyde, and Millie are willing to face the consequences as opposed to having George's death hanging over their heads. Marty refuses to turn himself in and feels betrayed. He storms out and convinces his brother to give him his gun and car. He then robs a gas station and leaves the country, becoming a fugitive.

Meanwhile, the others go to George's house and confess to his mother. Sam is later seen inside an interrogation room, telling the story to the police, who later find and view the tape from George's camera. In a final scene, audio of George explaining his dream of becoming a filmmaker and documenting his life in hopes that those who see it will finally understand him plays in the background. The police force, Sam, his father, and George's mother find the location of George's corpse. As the sheriff exhumes George's corpse, Sam watches on in regret while George's mother cries with sorrow. George ends the video and turns off the camera.

Production
Mean Creek was originally conceived by director Jacob Aaron Estes around 1996 and 1997. At the time, Estes felt that there were very few films about kids dealing with a tragedy, a genre he had always admired both as a kid and as an adult student of film. The film was independently financed with a budget of $500,000, although about $350,000 of it was spent off screen or donated. It was shot mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, including the cities of Boring, Sandy, and Estacada, though footage on the river was filmed on the Lewis River in southwest Washington.

Box office
Mean Creek received a limited release in North America in four theaters and grossed $29,170 with an average of $7,292 per theater. The film earned $603,951 domestically and $198,997 internationally for a total of $802,948. Based on a $500,000 budget, the film can be considered a modest box office success.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, Mean Creek has an 89% approval rating based on 124 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Mean Creek is an uncomfortably riveting glimpse into the casual cruelty of youth." Additionally, the film also holds a 74/100 score on Metacritic based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert praised the acting and concept of teenagers making conscious moral decisions and wrote "Mean Creek joins a small group of films including River's Edge and Bully which deal accurately and painfully with the consequences of peer-driven behavior. Kids who would not possibly act by themselves form groups that cannot stop themselves. This movie would be an invaluable tool for moral education in schools, for discussions of situational ethics and refusing to go along with the crowd."