THE IN CROWD

by Tom Meek

This pretentious little thriller from director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) about the J. Crew set behaving badly is less a trite, intellect-free foray in filmmaking than it is a shrewd exercise in teen-market targeting. The formula gets rolling when sultry psychiatric in-patient Adrien (Lori Heuring) gets furloughed and is handed a job at a posh beachfront country club. There she breaks through the staff-member barrier when Brittany (Susan Ward), the club's resident bombshell prima donna, takes her under her wing. The two party hearty with the ignoble trust-fund clique and get along sisterly, though both harbor dark secrets: Brittany is sibling-obsessed, and Adrien's committal had to do with delusional romantic fantasies about her doctor. But none of that comes into play until way late in the film, when jealous affections and a few corpses pop up. Until then, the only "thrill" is watching some bitchy bikini-clad debutantes get felt up by the bust-hugging camera work. For a murderous romp through the sex games of the rich and depraved, The In Crowd is about as "in" as white shoes after Labor Day. At the Copley Place, the Fenway, the Fresh Pond, and the Allston and in the suburbs.