movie review mean creek

‘Mean Creek’ a lesson in real teen life

Marty (Scott Mechlowicz, left) and Sam (Rory Culkin) are part of a group of troubled young teens who plot a playful practical joke on a troublemaker, only to see it all go wrong in "Mean Creek."

“Mean Creek” opens with a schoolyard bully picking on a smaller kid, develops into a story of revenge, and then deepens into the surprisingly complex story of young teenagers trying to do the right thing. It could have been simple-minded and predictable, but it becomes a rare film about moral choices, about the difficulty of standing up against pressure from your crowd.

Sam ( Rory Culkin ) is small for his age, bright, articulate. He has become the favorite target of George ( Josh Peck ), a chubby, spoiled kid whose aggression, we eventually learn, masks a deep loneliness. Certainly George is obnoxious on the surface; I was reminded of specific bullies who operated in the schools of my youth, bullies who never seem to attend our class reunions, although if they did I would cross the room to avoid them. Childhood wounds are not forgiven.

Sam gets pounded by George in a schoolyard fight one day, and that angers his older brother Rocky ( Trevor Morgan ). Rocky is a teenager whose triumphs are behind him: He got points for smoking and drinking before anyone else did, was probably sexually active at an early age, was macho and good-looking, was popular within a narrow range, and is now facing his working years without the skills or education to prevail. He’s a type familiar from Richard Linklater’s “ Dazed and Confused ,” the recent high school graduate still hanging out with younger kids because those his own age have moved on.

Sam runs with a crowd of close friends, including Marty ( Scott Mechlowicz ), Clyde ( Ryan Kelley ) and Millie ( Carly Schroeder ), who will become his girlfriend when they figure out their half-formed feelings. Marty has problems, including a father’s suicide and an older brother who picks on him, and of course the bully George knows how to push his buttons.

George is smart and observant, able to hurt with his words as well as his fists, and it’s only in a scene where he’s alone at home that we see how desperately he depends on his video toys and the neat stuff in his room as compensation for a deep loneliness. His problem is his big mouth, his habit of using words to wound even when they put him in danger. His out-of-control rant at a crucial moment is a very bad idea.

The other kids hang out as a crowd, and, pushed by Rocky and Marty, decide to pull a practical joke on George. “We need to hurt him without really hurting him,” Sam says. They devise a fake birthday party as a way of luring George along on a boat trip, and it is during that trip that their practical joke begins to seem like a bad idea.

Jacob Aaron Estes , who wrote and directed “Mean Creek,” shows in his first film a depth of empathy for his characters, and for the ways the strong-willed ones control the others. It’s extraordinary, the small words and events he uses to demonstrate the discovery of the more sensitive kids — Sam and especially Millie — that George isn’t a monster after all. They begin to feel sorry for him, and talk quietly among themselves about calling off the practical joke. But Rocky and Marty, who personally have nothing against George, want to go ahead; they’re using a crude interpretation of justice to mask their own needs.

The final act of the film is extraordinary. How unusual it is to see kids this age in the movies seriously debating moral rights and wrongs and considering the consequences of their actions. “Mean Creek” makes us realize how many films, not just those about teenagers but particularly the one-dimensional revenge-driven adult dramas, think the defeat of the villain solves everything. Such films have a simplistic playground morality: The bully is bad, we will destroy him, and our problems will be over. They don’t pause to consider the effects of revenge — not on the bully, but on themselves.

“Mean Creek” joins a small group of films including “The River’s Edge” and “Bully,” which deal accurately and painfully with the consequences of peer-driven behavior. Kids who would not possibly act by themselves form groups that cannot stop themselves. This movie would be an invaluable tool for moral education in schools, for discussions of situational ethics and refusing to go along with the crowd.

But the MPAA in its wisdom has recommended it not be seen by those who would find it most useful and challenging; it has the R rating. At Cannes, where the movie was selected for the Director’s Fortnight, Estes ruefully said the rating was “because of a scene where the f-word is used about 1,000 times.” Let it be said that the f-word has been heard and undoubtedly used by everyone the MPAA is shielding from it, and that the dialogue in that scene and throughout “Mean Creek” is accurate in the way it hears these kids talking.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Ryan Kelley as Clyde
• Rory Culkin as Sam
• Carly Schroeder as Millie
• Trevor Morgan as Rocky
• Shelly Lipkin as Mr. Merrick
• Josh Peck as George
• J.W. Crawford as Tom
• Scott Mechlowicz as Marty

Written and directed by

• Jacob Aaron Estes

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Mean Creek Reviews

For all its contrivances and hesitations, Mean Creek showcases a real, promising talent-even if he might be better off writing about characters his own age.

Full Review | Jan 29, 2019

Mean Creek is a strong premise gone horribly awry.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2017

This movie about teens is for adults only.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 26, 2010

A very effective tale of morals, conscience, and peer pressure.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 14, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

The film gives us an adult's idea of what kids are like, avoiding the complications and inconsistencies of actual adolescence.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2005

First time writer/ director Estes brings sensitivity and insight to this tale of teens pushed to extremes and forced to confront their sense of responsibility and morality

Full Review | Aug 30, 2005

example of everything that is good in American independent cinema

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 30, 2005

Follows a fluid narrative that never feels contrived, and leaves the audience with genuine sympathy for every single child involved.

Full Review | Original Score: 74/100 | Aug 25, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 14, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 29, 2005

A mature, significant contribution to the unfornately growing trend of films that address teen violence (unfortunate in that we need the trend at all).

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 1, 2005

A wonderful, if dreary, teen drama.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 7, 2005

I've actually known my fair share of troubled kids, and this film is as accurate a depiction of them as I've ever seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 30, 2005

...a movie about moral choices, about learning what it is to be decent in the world.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 27, 2005

We're forced to stare both the perpetrators and the victims full in the face, to see what made them the fools they are and what will come of the foolishness they commit.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 15, 2005

Angry kids on an unsupervised boat trip? Constant ominous music? Gee, wonder what's going to happen next.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2005

"Children Need Positive Adult Supervision"

What You Need To Know:

(HH, AB, B, C, Ro, Ho, LLL, V, S, N, AA, DD, MM) Humanist worldview with one anti-religious sentiment expressed, but with moral and redemptive aspects wherein a group of teenagers eventually decides to do the right thing, one character asks another if he believes in God, and the same two characters briefly discuss the concept of forgiveness but movie doesn’t carry their discussion to any positive religious conclusions or intelligent philosophical ones, plus Romantic view of a bully who turns out to be misunderstood and suffering from dyslexia instead of being someone who lets his sinful nature get the better of him, and implied pro-homosexual message regarding the teasing of one teenager because he lives with his homosexual father and the father’s “partner”; about 54 mostly strong obscenities, one strong profanity, no light profanities, and boy vomits after seeing a person drown to death; violence includes fighting, bully punches smaller boy on the ground, older brother angrily wrestles brother’s head near to ground, accidental drowning, blood in water, boy shoots toy water rifle, teenager takes older brother’s gun and shoots at bottles, and boy with handgun holds up convenience store; some sexual comments and young teenagers French kiss during game of Truth or Dare; upper male nudity; alcohol use by underage teenagers; smoking and marijuana use by teenagers; and, miscellaneous immorality such as bullying, a lack of adult supervision for teenagers, teenagers trade nasty insults, teenagers hide the dead body of a boy killed accidentally, armed robbery, and the front door of one house appears to have a Mormon sticker on it but there is no other apparent Mormon content.

GENRE: Drama

More Detail:

MEAN CREEK is a critically acclaimed drama about an important day in the life of a group of American teenagers.

The movie opens with a fat teenager named George beating up a smaller, younger teenager, Sam, on the school playground. At home, Sam complains about the incorrigible bully to his older brother, Rocky, who says he’ll think of some way to teach George a lesson.

Rocky consults his friends Marty and Clyde. Marty is a gregarious, beer drinking, pot smoking teenager. Clyde is a shy teenager who suffers teasing because he lives with his perverted homosexual father and his dad’s boyfriend.

Marty tells Rocky and Clyde, “We’re gonna smoke that ham,” meaning George. They convince George to go with them, Sam, and Sam’s cute girlfriend Millie on a canoe trip in the woods, on Sam’s alleged birthday. There, they plan to strip George and make him walk home naked.

George surprises them, however, by showing up with a birthday present for Sam and trying to make friends. Although George lacks social graces, Sam and his brother get cold feet about Marty’s plan, but this irks Marty, who’s upset that George beats up younger children and even hit Clyde with a baseball bat one time. Marty instigates a game of Truth or Dare, which results in Marty and George revealing the troubled, angry natures within them. An accidental death occurs, and the remaining teenagers must decide how they are going to handle the situation.

Most of MEAN CREEK’s young actors deliver brilliant performances, but the R-rated movie contains lots of strong foul language by a couple of the teenagers, a few crude sexual references, and some underage alcohol abuse, marijuana smoking, and cigarette smoking. There are also some other problematic aspects to the story, such as the lack of any apparent adult supervision of these teenagers.

MEAN CREEK aims at a realistic portrayal of the problems American teenagers face, which is another reason it’s getting such high praise, but it neglects some of the more uplifting aspects of teen life in order to concentrate on more disturbing and sensationalistic areas. It also briefly mentions the subjects of God and forgiveness in two interesting scenes, but without saying anything substantial about them. Also, despite its humanist worldview, the movie presents a Romantic view of the local school bully, George, who turns out to be misunderstood and suffering from dyslexia instead of being someone who lets his sinful nature get the better of him too often.

These failures dilute the moral impact of the movie. They also clearly demonstrate that MEAN CREEK is not really as daring or provocative as it wants to be, and as the elite critics proclaim.

A more daring, more provocative, more artistic, and more realistic drama about American teenagers would have deleted most, if not all, of the cliché foul language, would have added a zero tolerance message for teenage drug and alcohol use, and would have the courage to fairly and intelligently deal with the religious issues of its subject matter, and even perhaps include a positive portrayal of an intelligent, God-fearing, respectful teenager who could offer teenage moviegoers a positive role model for a change. Now, that would be a really provocative and daring concept for a movie! Frankly, it’s getting very boring hearing today’s humanist, pagan filmmakers and critics congratulating themselves for making and praising R-rated, provocative dramas like MEAN CREEK with gratuitous foul language, sexual references, drug scenes, and no strong religious themes or premises, or even anti-religious or anti-Christian themes and premises.

The good news about MEAN CREEK, however, is that all of the teenagers except Marty come to their senses, become responsible, and decide to do the right thing, even though it may greatly cost them. The movie also contains some sweet, funny scenes between some of the teens, especially Sam and his girlfriend, Millie. Ultimately, the movie does show that children and teenagers will get into big trouble if they lack involved, loving adult supervision. Teenagers also need the supervision of involved, loving, and Christian mothers and fathers. Of course, there are millions of American children and teenagers who do have such supervision. It’s time for filmmakers to make a good, intelligent, faith-based drama acknowledging that fact.

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Common Sense Media Review

By Nell Minow , based on child development research. How do we rate?

This movie about teens is for adults only.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie includes extremely strong language and very explicit sexual references, including sexual epithets. A character is called "faggot" and insulted because his fathers are gay. Middle schoolers are challenged to French kiss and others are dared to take off their clothes. There…

Why Age 18+?

Drinking, smoking, drug use by teens and kids.

Extremely strong language.

Very explicit sexual references including insults.

Characters use a gun, cut their skin with a knife, and a character is beaten and

Any Positive Content?

Parents need to know that this movie includes extremely strong language and very explicit sexual references, including sexual epithets. A character is called "faggot" and insulted because his fathers are gay. Middle schoolers are challenged to French kiss and others are dared to take off their clothes. There is a bare tush and implied nudity. Characters use a gun, cut their skin with a knife, and a character is beaten and another is killed. Teens and younger kids drink, smoke, and use drugs, and one who declines is insulted and pressured. The movie's themes include vigilante justice and there is a painful reference to suicide.

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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Characters use a gun, cut their skin with a knife, and a character is beaten and another is killed. Tense scenes, injuries and death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents Say (2)
• Kids Say (7)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Must watch! Not for kids.

What's the story.

When Sam (Rory Culkin) is beat up by a school bully, his older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) and his friend Marty (Scott Mechlowicz) plot revenge. They will invite the bully (Josh Peck as George) on a boating trip, telling him it's a birthday party for Sam, and then play a cruel trick on him. On the water, things seem different. George seems vulnerable, almost childishly happy to be included. He explains that maybe his learning disability makes him "a superior being, the future of the race" and uses his video camera to record everything he sees. His aggression seems clumsy rather than hostile. Sam's friend Milly (Carly Shroeder), who knew nothing about the purpose of the trip, makes him promise that they won't try to hurt George. Sam, who has begun to feel sorry for George, agrees, and Rocky reluctantly tells Marty to call off the prank. But Marty has been looking forward to this and it feels like one too many compromises when he wants something to make him feel powerful. Sitting in the boat, far from civilization, they begin a game of Truth or Dare. And then things get tragically out of control.

Is It Any Good?

MEAN CREEK never makes it all the way from idea to story, but the talented young performers give their characters subtlety and depth far in excess of the script. The screenplay emphasizes the obvious and the characters are too obviously created to fit into neat categories across the range of perspectives. The car they drive to the river has an "honor student" bumper sticker on it. The bully pecking order from Marty's older brother down to Sam is as carefully calibrated as a slide rule. After-school-special level dialogue hangs heavily in the air after it is spoken.

But each member of the cast is remarkable, utterly genuine, transcending the limits of the screenplay, benefiting from sensitive direction. Peck bravely lets us share the kids' mixture of impatience and pity toward George. Culkin provides another touchingly open and brave performance. Mechlowicz is exceptionally impressive, with real leading man potential (more than making up for appearing in the awful Eurotrip ). The cinematography is superb, showing us the contrast between the placid surroundings and the explosive emotions. But it is the cast that makes this trip up the creek worthwhile.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how and why the characters reacted differently to the situations they faced. What is the right way to deal with a bully? Why do the kids have so little faith in the adult world to help them solve their problems? Be sure to notice all of the different tactics characters use to get others to do what they want -- questioning everything from their loyalty and integrity to their manhood. They could also talk about the effect that a secret has on a group and the way it makes the power relationships shift. Instead of bringing them together, it pulls them apart. What do we learn from the cameras in the movie, including George's camera and the one in the police station?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 16, 2004
• On DVD or streaming : January 24, 2005
• Cast : Rory Culkin , Ryan Kelley , Scott Mechlowicz
• Director : Jacob Estes
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 87 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language, sexual references, teen drug use and alcohol use
• Last updated : August 15, 2023

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