Overall, I liked this film. It had an intelligent plot, better than average camerawork and a couple of pretty descent characters. I didn’t have a problem with the jargon, per se… I only had a problem with the backdrop.
I generally think that this would have made an incredible film had it not been told from a high-school student’s point of view. This film has all of the classic clichés and nuances of a great piece of film noir. We have the classic femme fatale, the lead characters spends most of his time getting beat up, and oh yeah, the jargon. The problem with these things is that the fact that these are high-school students playing them out. It really gave me the impression, much of the time that I was watching an elaborate high-school play in which the kids were portraying adults. Unfortunately it was more of the other way around.
I really didn’t see any aspect of this story that hinged on the age of the characters. It makes me wonder why it was made in this way. Overall I liked it but I did find myself laughing at some of the parts that (because of the inappropriate backdrop) just delved into the silly spoof realm of film.