Meet Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) a 17-year-old whose widowed father has uprooted her from a big city high school and planted her in a backwater hamlet. Her classmates are stoners and the town's a dead-ringer for Twin Peaks (there's even a sub-plot involving a serial killer with a penchant for teenage girls). Bored and feeling like an outcast, Caroline begins looking for something to keep her busy until graduation.
That "something" is dreamy high school English teacher Mr. Anderson (Josh Lucas). The only problem is that Caroline isn't satisfied with just being teacher's pet. Soon, she's in a full-fledged love triangle with a troubled, stoner classmate (Reece Thompson).
If you're thinking the story plays out like a 98-minute morality tale - think again. This is Lolita with an attitude - Juno with a broken beer bottle. Caroline is nobody's fool. She's good when she's bad and she's bad a lot of the time.
The plot has some nice edge-of-the-seat twists that keep you guessing until the final scene. Credit director Michael Goldbach for keeping the fast-paced film moving with a dramatic intensity. He knows the genre well (he's currently working on Castaway on the Moon, a mystery drama remake) and it shows.
Will Caroline get the older English teacher busted and ruin his career? Will she fall for the sensitive stoner and blow this pop stand of a town? How about the serial killer? Will he/she tie everything up in a nice bloody package? In Daydream Nation you can never be too sure.
It'll keep you guessing and my guess is that you'll enjoy the ride. Daydream Nation casts a spell that's thin as a spider's web and it'll hold you captive with its deadly charm.