How sad is this?

Expected more

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

What is rich and self-indulgent teenagers of Upper East Side have in common with low-life ghetto scum? Drugs, of course. Particularly a recent, very addictive and expensive variant called "Twelve".The young peddler that brings together the two different worlds is White Mike (Chace Crawford). Mike was a normal kid until his mum dies of cancer. Unable to cope, he drops out of school and starts dealing illegal substances to high-society kids.Everything starts spiraling out of control in domino manner for Mike and his clients in one night of incident.His junkie cousin is killed and best friend Hunter (Philip Ettinger) wrongfully accused of the crime. Ex-school mate Jessica Brayson (Emily Meade) get herself hooked to Twelve. Preppy snowflake was a top student but now willing to do anything to score again. Jessica's friend Sara Ludlow (Esti Ginzburg) is the most popular girl in school and in her own words 'a shallow narcissistic bitch who manipulates everyone for everything'. She charms one of her many admirers Chris (Rory Culkin) to hold her 18th. birthday party at his parent's lush apartment. The gawky lad has his own problems especially with hotheaded druggie brother Claude (Billy Magnussen) who is about to go off the deep end. They are all connected tenuously to the new narcotic and matters come to a culmination at the party.There is no groundbreaking stuff here. Joel Schumacher takes the easy way out and chooses to concentrate on the obvious and clichéd aftermath of drug abuse but viewers will be turned off by the thin plot with unsympathetic characters. Wallows in preachy BS.Background narration by Kiefer Sutherland aimed at extrapolating the players is intrusive than anything else.

Rich young kids from fancy prep schools converge on Manhattan for the Easter recess. They are children used to get what they want, when they want, as though it is a given right. We are introduced to an assorted number of young men and women who have nothing to do; they go from one party to the next of their circle trying to be fabulous at an early age.White Mike is king among this set. His father has recently lost his restaurant and his mother has died of cancer. White Mike turns into selling drugs to the set he knows are seeking them. He is a welcome friend to all the rich kids he provides pot, and stronger stuff such as the new combination "Twelve" which is a combination that assures its user a great high. White Mike's friend Molly, is a sweet girl, the only one who shows any real feeling toward the drug dealer, realizing what he has gone through in his young life. In flashbacks we are told White Mike grew up with his cousin Charlie going to good schools where they no doubt, met all the other teens in the story. One night, while buying drugs from Lionel in Harlem, the drug dealer out maneuver Charlie's friend who has come armed with a gun and kills him, and another innocent bystander, Nana, who happened to be returning home. At the same time, a nerdy Chris, whose parents are away, is conned into letting Sara, a popular girl in this crowd, throw a fabulous party which will be featured in one of those gossip pages of the local press. Chris' brother, Claude, released from a penal institution returns home. He is a loose cannon, with a deranged mind who will be instrumental in derailing the party. The problem with "Twelve" directed by Joel Schumacher, is the amount of characters he and screenwriter Jordan Melamed have crammed into the story, which is based on a novel by Nick McDonell. Most comments compare this feature to "Less Than Zero", which came out earlier, but dealt with the same subject. The urban kids shown in the film have too much money to get them in trouble, as it is the case in the story. There are no parents supervision anywhere to be found, so the kids are left alone to do drugs, party, have sex, or whatever they see fit. It is a sad state of affairs. Chace Crawford appears as White Mike, the youth who turns all his energy into supplying drugs to whoever has enough money to buy them. He is not too convincing in the role. For that matter neither does Emma Roberts, who gives Molly a flat reading. Keifer Sutherland serves as the narrator introducing the various characters. Best of all in the film is Billy Magnussen who makes an impression as Claude, the problem boy who must make a statement. The rapper 50Cents is also effective as Lionel.

No matter what the bad reviews say about the story, acting, or premise, this movie is worth seeing simply as a work of art. This film should be included in every list of movies given to cinematographers to learn from. The camera work and visual style of this film is enough to earn it at least an 8/10 rating, and when you add in the characterization that's on par with most best-picture winners, you have a 9-10 rating. There are parts of this movie where you can't help but feel drawn into the story. The storytelling is incredible. If the characters on screen are feeling depressed or confused due to an intense drug trip, the audience feels the same way. This is done through masterful camera work, narration, dialogue, flashbacks, lighting, sound, and plot. This film should be viewed by all and revered as a work of art by all who have the authority. 15-25 year-olds will connect immediately with the story, and everyone else will be in awe soon after. A great film all around.

Chace Crawford should never have pulled out of "Footloose"...it seems like it was his only opportunity to really play a character different from the one he plays in "Gossip Girl," or the one who, with only slight differences, he played in "The Covenant" or "The Haunting of Molly Hartley." Of course he's absolutely beautiful, and the prospects of seeing him in a film where he played a drug dealer was something I couldn't resist! Well, as odd as it may sound, he once again plays a grounded rich guy who likes a girl...in other words, the usual Chace Crawford fare! I mean, even his drug deals seem more like networking amongst the next generation of privilege! So what is "Twelve" all about? Well, it's about rich white kids who are drug abusers, the children of pill popping, indifferent parents...and that's really about all it is. The title of the film refers to a new drug of choice! There are at numerous times, clandestine suggestions that the wealthy are victims of the jealousy of the have nots. And of course I guess the main climax comes when the disturbed brother of one of the ensemble cast of nobody's shoots up a party and is gunned down by the police...but even that really fails to impart a meaningful message! We already knew that drugs destroy lives! If you've read this far, and you still aren't discouraged about this film, imagine the most deadpan narration in the world, and imagine that it never, ever, EVER shuts up!Yes, I'm talking about Kiefer Sutherland...opening narration might've been okay...but when he kept on narrating, it was an open excuse to avoid actually creating a storyline where people interacted with one another in any meaningful way.I mean, in the one scene, after "White Mike" finds out that his cousin Charlie is dead, he goes to a Church. We even get Kiefer Sutherland's voice: "White Mike thought to himself, why am I here?" I mean, c'mon!!!Utterly, utterly annoying and pointless to a painful degree! Were it not impossible for me to just like looking at Chace Crawford, the film would get a 1...but it inches up only slightly to a 2! Don't waste your time on this stinker!