Infused with a raw honesty found in films such as Larry Clark’s Kids and Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen, the stunning new film, All the Weekend’s Drama, is a strong feature debut for writer-director John Robb Saunders. This is a well-written picture that doesn’t look down on its cast of teens and young twenty something characters.

Laken Giles stars as Chloe, an aimless twenty year-old who works as a janitor and spends what little money she makes on drugs and alcohol; a crutch to help her forget her life of poverty. Chloe and her “peeps” seem to fear any semblance of real emotion and close themselves off from a world they fear doesn’t want them. Safe in their bubble of the 24 hour party, life has gone backwards for Chloe (and many of the people she knows) causing each relationship to overflow with conflict.

When she ends up pregnant (she doesn’t know the father), Chloe reassess her lifestyle and works at making a change.

Friend and roommate Nina (Sharihan Haddad) is the most together of anyone Chloe knows. She works a steady job and is trying hard to make something of herself. Unfortunately, Chloe’s disrespect for their house and lackadaisical attitude towards finances has put them at odds, though the pregnancy will find them reconnecting on deeper levels.

A kind teenager named Benny (Brett Cormier) is friend to both Chloe and Nina and one who brings out the nurturing side in the former.

On the negative side, Madison (Alexis Figueroa) is always high or drunk and too-often disrespects Chloe, going so far as to steal money from her while she sleeps. Just the type of friend Chloe doesn’t need, though the screenplay doesn’t cast her a villain. Madison is seen as another casualty of poverty-stricken America.

Drug dealer Michael (Micah Flamm) is an interesting character. This is a young man who regrets the life choices he made, but will do nothing to put him on a better path. Son to an abusive dad, he has given up on a better life and unwillingly embraced the sins of the father. In one of the film’s best moments, Michael speaks to Benny about holding onto his youth for as long as he can, as adulthood is harder than one could imagine.

A well-crafted side character is Imara (Cady Mariano), a friend of Nina and single mom who becomes an important part of Chloe’s life, delivering one of the most moving monologues in the film. It is interesting to watch the dynamics of how Imara’s role in Chloe’s life goes from fleeting association to confidant.

The cast of newcomers is uniformly good. Each performance is embodied with truth and (thanks to Saunders’ excellent screenplay) the cast stays away from caricature. Director Saunders allows for long scenes of dialogue with minimal cutting that give his actors space to create. Sometimes moving, sometimes infuriating, the conversations between these characters carry a powerful emotional punch.