The latest film drama about the lost generation of kids rebelling from their middle-class families and suburban homes, "Alpha Dog" is inspired by the real-life story of Jesse James Hollywood, an L.A. drug dealer who became the youngest person placed on the FBI's most-wanted list when he fled after a senseless murder.

Director Nick Cassavetes uses non-fiction film cues to help sell that "true story" angle, such as interspersing distracting faux interviews. But he's less interested in the tale of the fugitive, renamed Johnny Truelove and played with petty arrogance by Emile Hirsch, than in his culture of largely alienated white middle-class kids who indiscriminately appropriate the language and attitude of gangsta culture.

He focuses with the social dynamics of the circle, from the posturing and verbal pissing contests to the escalation of unchecked rage and violence, and creates a palpable tension and discomfort out of their interactions.

Justin Timberlake is unexpectedly likable as Johnny's easygoing sidekick, completely out of his depths as the situation escalates, and Shawn Hatosy is scary as a kind of indentured servant to Johnny and designated group chump who fawns all over his tormentor in an effort to be accepted.

For all of the credibility of the performances (or at least the teens), it all feels like recycled social commentary. Even the plot, which revolves around Johnny's revenge on a drug-addled dealer (Ben Foster) by kidnapping his little brother, Zack (Anton Yelchin), was seen a couple of years ago in "The Chumscrubber."

"Alpha Dog" is more interesting than that tired suburban satire, but the portrait of an amoral generation that glamorizes violence and embraces drugs and binge-drinking as an escape from the pressures of being a kid with parents who don't care (or, worse, do care) is more bitter than revelatory.