ritten and directed by Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook), Alpha Dog is a sordid tale in the middle-class wasteland of Southern California, populated with tattooed teen pushers, spoiled Valley girls and drug-dealing dads. Set in 1999, the true-crime tragedy is based on abduction and murder involving the real life Jesse James Hollywood, who is awaiting trial on charges related to the 2000 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz.

The film starts off with happy home-movie footage of families by the Christmas tree set to the tune of "Over the Rainbow." But that quickly switches to blaring hip-hop beats, guns and split screens as we're dropped into the life of the babyfaced Hollywood (renamed Johnny Truelove for the story and played with fierce intensity by Emile Hirsh).

With his drug dealer of a dad (Bruce Willis), Johnny is granted alpha-dog status which gains him a solid selection of friends – which include Frankie Ballenbacher (Justin Timberlake, who acts tough, sports tattoos and smokes a shitload of weed), Tiko (Fernando Vargas) and Elvis Schmidt (Shawn Hatosy) - in his San Fernando Valley neighbourhood. As he becomes a successful marijuana dealer himself, Johnny puts these friends to work.

When one of Johnny's skinhead clients - Jake Mazursky, a live-wire neo-Nazi played by Ben Foster (Six Feet Under) - fails to come up with the deal money he owes, Johnny decides to kidnap Jake's half-brother (Anton Yelchin) and hold him hostage until payment is made. But the plan's not really thought out; with no exit strategy, Johnny and his team don't know what to do with Zack when Jake refuses to pay.