In its best moments, Gossip is a worthwhile failure that considers rumor-spreading from an academic standpoint, going so far as to imagine -- in a clever jibe at the increasing frivolity of the liberal arts course catalogue -- a college class devoted to the topic, taught by subversive spoken-word icon Eric Bogosian. But Davis Guggenheim is too fascinated with the concept of gossip, conveyed through montages of chattering teeth and bastardized hearsay, to give his chosen plot line the skillful treatment that might have made it great. Accordingly, the movie devolves into a study of how the petty personal agendas of these shallow schemers cause them to go way beyond what is ethically acceptable for a class assignment. The rumor mill ceases to be the focus, replaced by vengeance. Even with the relatively low body count, Gossip becomes more a weak clone of recent teen slasher films than a complicated analysis of its fascinating topic. With a score from goth soundtrack king Graeme Revell (The Craft, Strange Days) and camerawork from prolific cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, Gossip does establish a moody landscape of New York's oh-so-hip alternative underworld. But this is all consistent with Guggenheim's style-over-substance approach, which is not enough to overcome the flat story that even a "surprise ending" can't redeem.