Knocked out

Drillbit is both funny and smart | Cara Marcano

Paramount Pictures

Teenage angst and suffering—in the midst of the opulence and absenteeism of the worst of upper-middle-class parenting—set the stage for the laughs and smart social satire in Drillbit Taylor.

Wayne (Nate Hartley) is a skinny, kind teenager whose best buddy is the very heavy-set Ryan (Troy Gentile). In their first days of high school, the two boys and buddy Emmit (David Dorfman) are terrorized and targeted by the psychopathic bully Filkins (Alex Frost). His brutality is less than funny.

So bad is his reign of terror that the boys decide to pool their money and hire a bodyguard. They select homeless Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) who promises to save them while plotting to scam the kids out of their allowances.