Dear Wendy (2005)

Dogme '95 cofounders Thomas Vinterberg (CELEBRATION) and Lars Von Trier (DANCER IN THE DARK, DOGVILLE) team up in DEAR WENDY, an unusual but entertaining drama set in an unnamed American small town. Jamie Bell, the award-winning actor who played the title role in BILLY ELLIOT, stars as Dick, a teenager loner whose father (Trevor Cooper) is disappointed that the boy has chosen not to work with him in the mines. Shortly following his father's death, Dick develops a fetish for a gun he bought in a toystore, and he soon forms a special club with fellow outcasts Freddie (Michael Angarano), Huey (Chris Owen), Susan (Alison Pill), and Stevie (Mark Webber). The teens meet regularly in an abandoned section of the mine, where they refer to their guns as their "partners," experiment with unique shooting styles, and live by their own code of bizarre rules--which include never firing aboveground at people. But when Sheriff Krugsby (Bill Pullman) asks Dick to help take care of troubled teen Sebastian (Danso Gordon), things don't go quite as planned, leading to an unforgettable ending. The quirky, compelling film, written by Von Trier and directed by Vinterberg, features cool costumes, expert pacing, and familiar songs by the 1960s group the Zombies.