Bruce McDonald's adaptation of Maureen Medved's stream-of-consciousness teen novel The Tracey Fragments turns the screen into an ever-shifting mosaic, with anywhere from two to 20 separate images appearing at the same time.

To criticize a film called The Tracey Fragments for being too fragmented may sound a bit on-the-nose, but this experimental drama from Canadian director Bruce McDonald is interesting for a while and then goes to pieces.

I hated this movie. I really did.

McDonald succeeds in capturing all the desperation, alienation, fantasies, and pain of a struggling adolescent, and the kaleidoscopic storytelling furthers his narrative instead of hindering it.