AFTERSCHOOL World Cinema

A teenage rites-of-passage drama, AFTERSCHOOL vividly captures the corrosive omnipresence of Web video footage for American teens. From violent You Tube-style clips to Internet pornography, our new media, suggests this debut film from director Antonio Campos, is creating a tangled web of confusion for young people going through puberty. Among them is the skinny, socially awkward sophomore Robert (Ezra Miller), who already has developed a taste for rough porn. As two girls suffer fatal drug overdoses on campus, Robert inadvertently captures the tragedy with his video camera . When his video begins circulating, the atmosphere of paranoia and unease on campus grows, and he becomes increasingly troubled and withdrawn. Campos, in his startling, stylish debut, opens us to deeper debate on the corrosive power of 21st-century imagery. But AFTERSCHOOL scratches gently at this phenomenon, rather than pushing to excess. Just 24, Campos demonstrates his skill at weaving together a variety of themes and concerns: the alienated angst of voyeurism, the pervasive influence of media violence and the empowering nature of the webcam. Campos also explores, with great finesse, more familiar cinematic subject matter: the shifting allegiances and power dynamics at an American high school.