IN `MEAN CREEK,' MORAL NOT SO SIMPLE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

ALTHOUGH it owes a lot to ``River's Edge,'' and even more to ``Bully,'' ``Mean Creek'' is a teen conspiracy movie that triumphantly strikes its own unsettling tone. Performed with striking naturalism by its youthful cast and shot in an artfully grubby, sometimes ingenious way, this Sundance prize winner is really attuned to how youth can go bad. But also, crucially, how seriously kids can strive to do the right thing, unequipped as they may be.

In his feature debut, playwright and maker of short films Jacob Aaron Estes turns a simple, revenge-on-a-school-bully plot into a canvas for serious moral inquiry. ``Mean Creek's'' apparent bad guy, George (Nickelodeon's Josh Peck), is aggressive and obnoxious, true, but he's also a lonely fat kid who quite poignantly keeps a video diary of his unlovely life. Meanwhile, the ad-hoc gang planning George's comeuppance live in a complex web of intimidation among themselves and others in their small Oregon town. It's almost as if the only thing to do in this burg is test your ability to tyrannize.

But when attitudes shift and events move too fast for comfort on an afternoon boating trip, everyone involved is forced to explore strange new emotions such as empathy and decency. When we first encounter George, he's beating on runty Sam (``Signs' '' Rory Culkin) for daring to touch his precious video cam. Sam's older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan, ``Jurassic Park III'') goes into family defense mode. He enlists his buddies - Clyde (``Smallville's'' Ryan Kelley), who has two dads and is sick of having his manhood questioned for it, and charismatic, rage-filled Marty (Scott Mechlowicz), whose only father killed himself and left him to the uncaring mercies of his own nasty older brother - in a scheme to get George out on the river, pants him and make him hike back to town naked.

Trouble is, George is so pleased to be invited anywhere, he soon charms Rocky, Clyde, Sam's puppy girlfriend Millie (``Lizzie McGuire's'' Carly Schroeder) and even Sam into ditching the planned humiliation. But Marty will not be denied his cruel fun, and the result of that tests everyone's loyalty and conscience.

``Mean Creek'' is unusually well-acted for a teen movie. Credit is due, certainly, to Estes' script and handling of his ensemble. But it's hard to imagine Peck's incendiary mood swings from pathetic to ingratiating to provokingly repellent, or Mechlowicz's menacing self-defense mechanisms, not coming from brilliantly inventive and committed young actors.

As mentioned earlier, we've seen much of what goes down in ``Mean Creek'' before. But I can't say I've ever seen it portrayed with such high standards of responsibility to the way kids really act, think and judge.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

MEAN CREEK - Three stars

(R: violence, language, nudity, children in jeopardy, drug use)

Starring: Rory Culkin, Joshua Peck, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Carly Schroeder, Ryan Kelley.

Director: Jacob Aaron Estes.

Running time: 1 hr. 27 min.

Playing: Laemmle Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Landmark Westside Pavilion, West Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Raw, disturbing story of kids' plan to embarrass a school bully gone horribly awry is shot and played with edgy, honest behavior and knotty moral complexity.