After confiding in his older brother that the fat kid at school has been picking on him, 13-year-old Sam (Rory Culkin) has a wish for revenge that threatens to be granted. His older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) and his pals - sensitive Clyde (Ryan Kelley) and brooding trailer trash Marty (Scott Mechlowicz, doing his best Josh Hartnett impression) - agree to invite young bully George (a delightfully obnoxious Josh Peck) on a boat trip with the secret intention of stripping him butt naked and tossing him in the river. But on the big day, George inadvertently reveals the same insecurity and loneliness as his potential punishers. As the group push off down the Oregon backwaters, one of the otherwise sympathetic conspirators refuses to call off the plan. If things go too far, who will take responsibility?

Venturing into the same banjo-plucking backwaters as teen-movies such as Wrong Turn and Without A Paddle, Mean Creek seems ready to steer a juvenile course into Deliverance country, even cracking the obligatory "Squeal, Piggy!" joke. But this sour childhood drama offers something far more resonant. First time writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes uses the dingy American backwaters, not as a hillbilly-haunted assault course, but as a moral vacuum inside of which a group of children are left to their own dangerous devices.

A hit at Sundance, shot in 24 days on handheld DV, in many ways this is a bitter retort to the apple-pie homilies of Stand By Me, exploring just how desperately children crave companionship and how far they'll go to get it. Once events cross that moral line, however, the movie insists on pointing the finger of blame.

Given the reprimands of his Jiminy Cricket-like girlfriend, Millie (Carly Schroeder), and the fact that we are never given enough reason to hate the bullying George as much as everyone else, Sam's moral dilemma at times feels pretty non-existent. But the watchability of the young players and Estes's keen ear for male adolescent banter ("Heather Locklear or Shannon Doherty?") serve to redeem Mean Creek, one of those welcome American movies that proves being a teenager is nothing like it is in The O.C.