Home Room (DVD, 2003)

In the aftermath of a small town high school shooting, nine are killed and one, popular Deanna (Erika Christensen), is wounded. As students and the victims' relatives try to make sense of the situation, Deanna recuperates in the hospital. A detective (Victor Garber) is given the difficult task of laying the blame on someone, and he focuses his attention on Alicia (Busy Philipps), an intense, outsider-type student who was the only witness to the entire incident. A clearly troubled and unpopular girl, Alicia is forced by the school principal to visit Deanna daily in the hospital. While Deanna, though troubled by the ordeal, is friendly and sociable, Alicia is angry and verbally abusive. Over the course of days, however, the girls form a bond that arises out of coping with great tragedy. Small but ambitious, HOME ROOM deals with the sensitive subject of teenage gun violence sensitively and intelligently. With the intimate style of a stage play, Paul F. Ryan's screenplay attempts to examine the senseless aftermath of a school shooting, from every angle. Busy Philips's carries the film with her magnetic performance of Alicia, the troubled goth girl who hides her secrets with a tough exterior.