Another old favorite for this day. Visually, it's kind of drab and unflashy, but then I wonder if that's intentional, to further highlight the tedium and sameness of the planned suburban community the film's sisters dwell in (and yet are very much separate from). I'm not a teenage girl, nor have I ever been that, so I can't speak from a position of authority but this has always felt like a very honest and heartfelt allegory for female puberty. That's not a great revelation on my part or anything - it practically hits you over the head with it - but I think it's executed with sincerity and sympathy. (The sequel does an equally admirable job dealing with drug addiction, at least until it goes off the rails in the third act.) It's a very grounded film - the characters don't feel like caricatures and act in believable (if irrational) ways to the events happening around them. I always forget how much humor Mimi Parker brings to the picture as the girls' oblivious, clueless mother. It's prevented from getting a perfect rating because of one horribly false note, that being the scene where the younger sister tries out an antidote on a classmate; it's shot and scored as if it were an outtake from The Adventures of Pete & Pete. That, and the film becomes much less interesting when it shifts from character-driven to a typical monster chase in the final scenes (though competently done and sporting a thankfully tactile werewolf, not CGI). There's a dearth of quality werewolf films out there. Treasure the ones that nail it.
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