On the Outs

Story Line: The lives of three young women intersect in prison and on the streets of Jersey City, N.J. Suzette (Mariano) is involved with a drug dealer, addicted Oz (Marte) struggles to regain custody of her daughter and Marisol (Mendoza) deals with her mother's habit.

Bottom Line: A well-intentioned study of teens in crisis, On the Outswas reportedly based on the experiences of various teenage detention-center inmates. The film rises and falls on a scene-by-scene basis, with some sequences hammering home the anti-drug, anti-crime message in the intense fashion of other successful 'hood movies. At other points, the film has the distinct feel of an acting exercise, with improvised obscenity-laden dialog. Its melodramatic interludes aside, the film deserves to be seen by urban teens. Ironically, the elements that might draw them to rent Outs—namely its raw dialog and violent outbursts—are understandably underplayed in the film's promotional campaign.