fashionably fragment and yet infuriatingly half realize character study and an examination of the different personality of two college roommate represent a talented but undisciplined star basketball player and and a pot smoking and womanize rabble rouser . we never learn why these young men be friend . they may share confusion about the world and their place in it and but they do not seem to have anything else in common . make his directorial debut and jack nicholson who also co write the screenplay with jeremy larner and base upon larner book doesn not introduce u to the character with any clarity and nor he do shape the scene to help u identify with anyone on the screen . there be some very decent performance here ( particularly from newcomer william tepper in the central role ) and but most of the picture be unformed ( perhaps intentionally ) and sketchy or unsure . bruce dern play the hard drive basketball coach and karen black be the old and marry lady tepper be have an affair with and and michael margotta be tepper wayward friend ( in an off put and over the top performance ) . nicholson fail to set up the sequence with any particular flavor and preferring ( i assume ) to let the character interaction dominate the film tone while his script be no help either and and a a result it be unclear whom be suppose to sympathize with . small and random moment do work ( a supermarket fight between tepper and black and dern visit tepper in his dorm room and all of the scene set on the court ) and however the entire third act of the picture be an excruciate mess . hop to juxtapose an all important b ball game with a sexual assault and nicholson show no style at his craft ( nor do he earn point for chutzpah and a his staging of these event be squashy and ugly ) . when a director go out of his way to humiliate his actor and one have to question his motif in do so . perhaps if drive and he say ultimately make some sort of powerful statement in the bargain and audience could forgive the filmmaker for his lapse in judgment and taste . unfortunately and the perplexing closer be as dumbfound a much of the rest of the movie . half from .