Clomping across the screen like an especially gritty movie of the week, Self-Medicated tells the story of Andrew, a troubled 17-year-old living on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Left reeling by the death of his father, Andrew devotes himself to self-destruction, indulging in drink and drugs and random violence until his mother (who’s battling a painkiller addiction of her own) ships him off to draconian rehab facility. “As Andrew is subjected to the secret physical and emotional abuses of the program, something inside him is reawakened,” reads the film’s press release. “He must somehow get free to save what’s left of his life, but to do that, he knows he must first face his own demons head on.”

Self-Medicated was written and directed by Monty Lapica, a formerly troubled 17-year-old whose mother sent him to a draconian rehab facility after the death of his father. Lapica, now in his mid-20s, also stars as Andrew, and his obvious distance from his teen years is one of his film’s lesser problems. Stylistically, Self-Medicated strives for a fearless, gritty naturalism, and Lapica found a cast that’s up to the challenge—most notably Diane Venora as Andrew’s complicated mom. Unfortunately, Lapica’s would-be gritty naturalism is deployed in the service of a script that races from cliché to cliché, with an obliviousness that’s almost miraculous. “No, YOU don’t understand!” screeches Andrew in one of the film’s early confrontations; both the screeching and soap-quality dialogue continues for the next 90 minutes. By the time Andrew’s led to his climactic emotional epiphany by a wise black hobo (seriously), I wasn’t the only audience member laughing at the screen.

“But that’s exactly how it happened!” I can hear a defensive Lapica crowing. Maybe so. But interested parties can find more truth and better art in any episode of A&E’s Intervention.

SELF-MEDICATED DIR. MONTY LAPICA | RATED R | AT SELECT THEATERS IN LA