Mo Ogrodnik's feature debut, Ripe, suffered the same fate as many festival-circuit indie productions -- a brief theatrical release on the way to a video distribution deal replete with misleadingly sexy box-cover art -- but it deserves a look on the merits of its lead performers and striking atmosphere. Ogrodnik's agenda is simple and universal: to show the petty betrayals that adolescent girls foist upon one another when they discover their sexuality. Unfortunately, she has to work out this theme via a convoluted, unrealistic plot involving dead parents, runaway schemes, and a laissez-faire army base where two teenage girls can take up refuge and no one will bat an eyelash. That said, Ogrodnik's drably surreal visual sense -- aided by Wolfgang Held's dreamy, blue-green color scheme and Sally Petersen's stark production design -- allows many of Ripe's more preposterous scenarios to glide by easily, as part of the movie's overall Freudian-nightmare texture.