Intriguing, well-casted movie

Rating: 7/10 (2 September 1999)

I did not see this movie until after Norton received the Oscar nomination, so my expectations were elevated somewhat (I had high standards for Norton to begin with). What I saw once I finally viewed this movie was a rather earnest look at the combination of ignorance and immaturity and how one's thinking evolves with time using a topic that will always draw definite lines: race relations. I still have trouble with the bonding of Norton and his laundry room buddy (all it took was a little 'I miss my woman' thing for Norton to let down his guard?), as it came too easily, and I have a hard time thinking that little guy was going to keep Derek out of trouble with the rest of the black prison population, but hearing Norton's dialogue and sleek casting (Ed Furlong, Fairuza Balk, and Ethan Suplee, as much as I hated his character) more than made up for the questionable bonding. The casting approval extends to the ill Beverly D'Angelo and the "E/R"-before-George-Clooney's-ER-star Elliott Gould as the teacher.
Norton was great, period. Some scenes were chilling, enough to prompt a rating of 9 out of me. The extension of the first scene later in the movie involving the curb .... that still brings flinching obscenities from my mouth. Check this out in the near future.