This is a classically constructed based-on-true-events TV-movie from the 1990s, with all that this entails, but it's also fairly well-acted, fairly well-balanced and undoubtedly interesting in its discussions on where to draw the line regarding victims and perpetrators in cases of (alleged) sexual abuse between teenagers. Our Guys recognizes the difficulties involved when mental disability, budding sexuality and peer pressure is mixed into a hotchpotch of boundary-crossing and bad decisions. There are no winners in this story, despite what the parents of these kids so desperately want to cling onto. A committed performance by Ally Sheedy, a sensitive one by Eric Stoltz, and a highly impressive one by Heather Matarazzo as the girl elevates this effective drama.

This movie had every good intention and I applaud its search for justice. Heather Matarazzo was phenomenal in her role and portrayed a complex girl's feelings and their ambiguities with great skill and compassion. My feelings are rather strongly pro keeping sports in line with the academic pursuits of others. In too many high schools the athletic departments enjoy unchecked authority; the resultant misbehavior of their students is often allowed - sometimes even encouraged - to a ridiculous extent. And yes, in too many cases the "student" athletes get preferential treatment from adults behaving more like children than their charges. The other characters in the film, among the students, were cardboard if even that and the bias so loaded against them on screen as to cause the film to lose a valuable part of its creditability. They weren't just horrid people in every way but... The film was never intended to be a balanced portrayal of some people who lost all ideas of balance but in so vilifying them throughout, the film itself becomes grotesquely unbalanced. It served its purpose, I suppose, but it really wasn't a good film at all.

Curtis Stotlar