Vanessa Hudgens gets her hands dirty in Ronald Krauss’ pro-life message movie Gimme Shelter. She gains 15 pounds, tries on an accent, and cuts her hair short. The young actress’ commitment to the role of 16-year-old Apple Bailey–a homeless, damaged, pregnant teen who finds sanctuary at a warm New Jersey shelter–didn’t end with her outward appearance, either: she spent three weeks living with the girls at the real-life shelter the film is based on. All the work paid off, as she does a solid job of disappearing into the role, with her glitzy red-carpet looks and bubbly public persona adequately melted away.

Apple is an angry, disheveled teen with a nasty attitude that screams “keep your damn distance”. After fleeing from her yellow-toothed, violently abusive, meth-addict mother June (Rosario Dawson, embarrassingly over-the-top), she breaks into the gated suburban property of her estranged, loaded father Tom (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Joanna (Stephanie Szostak), carrying a letter he wrote her when he was born. During her stay Apple discovers she’s pregnant, and Tom and Joanna (who’s more than miffed that Apple’s dirtying up her McMansion) suggest she get an abortion.

The “A” word is never muttered, but this is the point in the film where the the thinly veiled Catholic messages really begin to pile on. The film portrays the suggestion of an abortion as absolutely evil, which would be fine, if only Krauss (who wrote and directed) had earned it. Certainly a film should stand its ground with conviction if it wants to make a statement, but Krauss’ script is so dismissive of the pro-choice perspective that he chooses to portray it as simply evil and wrong. The issue deserves a more intelligent approach than that.

Apple runs away again, and after stealing and crashing a car, she ends up in the hospital where she meets a kind-hearted clergyman named Frank (James Earl Jones, predictably decent) who sets her up to live in a home for unwed pregnant teens run by Kathy DiFiore, played by Ann Dowd. In reality, DiFiore has been running her shelters and taking in girls just like Apple for over 30 years. Though there isn’t a real Apple Bailey, the character is based on the combined stories from actual girls who stay at DiFiore’s shelter, some of whom appear in the film.

The film gets super syrupy from here, attempting to get across that Apple’s connecting with the other girls on a meaningful level while being transformed into a respectable, responsible young lady by the kind-yet-stern DiFiore (played well by Dowd). The transition from messy street kid to dress-wearing nice girl doesn’t feel earned in the slightest, due to Krauss’ priority abruptly shifting to conveying how much of a godsend DiFiore and her shelter are. There’s a melodramatic scene in which DiFiore intercepts June when she attempts to snatch Apple from the home against her will. (Dawson spits and growls like a rabid pit bull and is just awful.) The scene should be about Apple, but it’s clearly designed to showcase Difiore’s goodness. Apple’s story gets lost in all the adulation.

Gimme Shelter was clearly made with good intentions, and if nothing else, Krauss and Hudgens deliver their message with conviction. Problem is, the vessel they’ve constructed to deliver said message is chock-full of holes.

Kathy DiFiore has sheltered pregnant teens in her New Jersey home for decades, and her work has garnered her worldwide praise, including from Mother Theresa. Inspired by her story, Gimme Shelter stars Vanessa Hudgens as Apple Bailey, a fictional character who’s an amalgamation of the real-life girls DiFiore shelters. In the film, we watch Apple struggle to find her way when her abusive mother (Rosario Dawson) and absentee father (Brendan Fraser) fail to provide the support she needs. Eventually, she finds Kathy (played by Ann Dowd) and her shelter, the home she never thought she’d find.

DiFiore has resisted talking to any press about her story and the stories of the girls she shelters, but that all changed when she met director Ronald Krauss, who convinced her to let him make the film and share her story with the world by getting involved and helping her at the shelter for over a year.

DiFiore and Krauss talked to us about how they linked up to make the project, how a hug started it all, Kathy’s relationship with Ann Dowd, Hudgens’ performance, and more.

Gimme Shelter releases nationwide this Friday, January 24th.

Kathy, you haven’t been known to talk to any press about your story…
Kathy: None at all. Zero.

Zero. You didn’t want to do it. So, what brought you to Ronald? What made him different?
Kathy: It’s what brought him to me. I was in hiding! (laughs) I’m a very spiritual person. I have a deep commitment to God. I’ve dedicated my life to God. I say, “God writes straight through crooked lines.” Through a variety of crooked lines, I got to meet Ronald. When I met him, he started to talk about his talents and possibilities, and I kind of just said, “Whatever.” I call it God’s divine timer: every five minutes, I kept hearing in my head, “Trust him. Trust him.” This had never happened to me before. I say this honestly. He kept talkint to me, and I opened up to him. I listened to him. Normally, I would just hang up the phone, make up some excuse, change the subject. Every single talk show has called me, and I’ve always said no. I wouldn’t even let the girls know, because I didn’t want them to get intrigued that they’d get on a show. As I got to know Ronald, I knew why God was saying to trust him. He’s really special, and the girls fell in love with him. They had told him things about their lives that I had never heard.

Ronald, you were at the shelter for a year, correct?
Ronald: I was there a year to write the script, and then I was going back and forth all the time, between casting, researching, and thinking about the idea of actually going back to the real shelter, shooting in the real shelter, and eventually putting the real girls and their babies in the movie, acting with Vanessa. I was trying to figure out whether it was a possibility to do this in an independent fashion, because, first of all, it was a small film. Second of all, it becomes this verité documentary film. My initial instinct was to shoot a documentary, but as I got into it, I realized that doing a feature film would reach so many more people. It was such an important story that had to be told. In these times, the film isn’t just about these shelters or teen pregnancy: this is a film that can unify us and help our society, which teaches us about selflessness, about helping people, about family, about compassion, about love. It’s about all these things, wrapped up in this little place. I said, “This has to happen,” and it did. Now, it’s more than a movie: it’s becoming sort of a movement. It’s touching on so many things that we need right now and that we need to explore with others.

That’s the thing about independent film: we need to be able to have these personal stories to share with others. Big films are great and entertaining, and those are important to in a way, but right now, this film connects with us and can help to show us that helping people is the way. This is the time–right now–to stop fighting on Black Friday to save ten bucks. Forget about yourself and what you need for five minutes and realize that we went through some tough times. What we really need is to lift each other up. This film heals us in a certain way. I’m not saying that has anything to do with me. It’s because of all of the people who worked on this film: the mothers, the babies, Kathy. This is a film about family.

You’ve said that this project started with a hug. Can you talk about that?
Ronald: I went to the shelter to do some research one night, and I met this girl standing out front. It was the middle of January, so it was 20 degrees out and she had no jacket on. I thought she was part of the shelter, but she didn’t. When Kathy showed up, she asked who the girl was, and I said I didn’t know. Kathy had a bed for her, and when I told the girl she could stay, she hugged me so hard she almost knocked me over. She crushed my heart, really. It made me think really deeply about what was happening at the shelter. Her name is Darlisha, and she actually acts in the film with Vanessa as one of the girls. Her story is half the story of Apple. Living in ten foster homes, the razor blade scene with the mother…that all happened to her. The movie’s also really a combination of all the girls, because they have so much in common when it comes to abuse and how society has made them outcasts. The shelter embraces them and picks them up off their feet, showing them that they’re as good as anybody else.

Kathy, what was it like working with Ann Dowd?
Kathy: It was like working with an angel. She’s so sweet. She has her own foster child who she cares for. She took such care with the character. She’d come up to me with Ron’s permission and ask me for guidance. I’d coach her as best I could. When she’d be filming, she’d come back and ask, “Was it okay? How did you feel about it?” I never changed anything she did. She was superb. We became like sisters. I miss her. I wish she was here today. When she plays my part, I cry, because she does such a good job that I feel sorry for myself at times. When Rosario comes to the shelter and whacks her daughter in the face, I cry every time. It’s such a complex scene, and Ann is the anchor of it.

Ronald: Ann is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. She turns in performance after performance, she does theater…she’s so strong. Rosario is explosive in that scene, and in that scene, Ann defines the character of Kathy. She’s so strong. She shows the audience the way. We got so lucky with this cast.
Kathy: You sometimes have to break your heart to be in love, and that’s okay. That’s what that scene says. Kathy’s heart is broken, Apple’s heart is broken. But the love just blossoms.

Vanessa spent time with the girls at the shelter as well, correct?
Ronald: She lived at the shelter for three weeks. She cried the first night wondering what she was doing there, in a sense. She signed up for the project wondering if it was a good idea. That was the transformation, leaving Vanessa behind and becoming Apple. She cut her hair off, gained 15 pounds, lived in the shelter and came out of there being this girl. When we shot the movie, she was Apple. The entire time I was calling her Apple. I don’t think I ever saw Vanessa. I didn’t meet Vanessa until after the movie was over. She somehow became this character, who is so far from her, in terms of her personality as Vanessa Hudgens. She’s an incredible actress. If you challenge this girl, she’s going to deliver. She’s on the cusp of being something great, and this movie shows it. I helped her, but in the end, she had the abilities. I’ve worked with some really good actors, and she really made my job easy. She gave me the confidence that I had the right person for this role.

[To wrap up, Kathy provided more information about the great work she does and how people can help.]

Kathy: I have written a book called Gimme Love…Gimme Hope…Gimme Shelter. It has nine “Apples” in it, it has Mother Theresa in it, who has quite a relationship with me. I think people will enjoy reading it. We’re calling this not a film, but a movement. We’re hoping people will be inspired to help us open shelters around the country. My website is severalsources.net. I have a shelter kit, so if people want to open shelters in various places, I will help them. I’ve been doing this for ten years, including places as far away as China. Get involved! We need more shelters. There are 750,000 pregnant teens in this country a year. Some can stay home with their loved ones, but others are on the streets, and we need to help them.

Based off true life events is Craig Zobel’s Compliance, a controversial yet captivating look at how people fail to know their own basic rights and how gullible people are while in the presence of authority. Partly shot in docudrama style, the film ultimately shows the cruel manner of our own human nature. Reactions to Compliance have been fairly mixed after premiering earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival. It continued to divide audiences when it played at SXSW a few months later and it is easy to see why.

The film opens with a major crisis at a local fast food restaurant when one employee failed to close a freezer door overnight resulting in $1,400 in damaged inventory. Because of that they will be short on pickles and bacon for a Friday shift. And what is a fast food restaurant without pickles and bacon? The manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) deals with the situation by instructing employees to use just two strips of bacon per sandwich due to the shortage.

Right off the bat you get a sense of one-upmanship competition between Sandra and a particular employee named Becky (Dreama Walker), a cute blonde girl who just decided she found the perfect pink case for her cell phone. Becky is having a conversation with another employee about a new guy she is sort of seeing which impresses the other employee when Sandra walks by. Sandra interjects that she just knows her man is going to ask her to marry him. They both respond with congratulations. Becky mentions that this guy has been sending her pictures of his abs but Sandra states that she “sexts” with her guy often. A fairly awkward conversation between a middle-aged manager and a younger employee.

But still there is something genuine that Sandra projects. She seems down-to-earth and has a great work ethic. It is seen when her husband calls her to ask if it is alright if he stops by a friends place to have a few beers while he waits for her to get off (he hardly seems like someone who would sext). Even though she is slammed with work she kindly responds that he can do so without her permission but that she just does not want him getting too drunk is all.

The story really begins when Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer informing her that a customer had money stolen from them at the restaurant. The officer tells Sandra that they have someone who can testify that Becky was the one responsible for this. Sandra can hardly believe it but follows the orders to detain her for further questioning.

The officer on the phone has Sandra check the pockets of Becky and even take her cell phone and purse away from her. Becky denies stealing anything from a customer and although Sandra seems to believe Becky, she follows the orders the officer is giving her. It all seems fairly convincing until the officer asks Sandra to strip search Becky while they wait for the officers to arrive at the store.

Another flag rises when Sandra steps out of the room and the officer on the phone tells Becky to pretend that this whole thing does not bother her because of the stress it puts on Sandra. Just like Sandra did, Becky compiles with the officer even though she knows she is innocent and that it goes against her common logic. As crazy as it may seem to viewers, most people in their position would probably do the same thing.

Studies have shown that better judgment gets thrown out when authorities are persuading you do something. Even if the requests cause harm to the other person the majority of people will do it if they are told to. The famous Milgram social psychology experiment proved this when participants were told to give an electric shock to the other participants. The results of the experiment were that 65% followed orders and administered the final shock to the other person.

One of the best parts about Compliance was the acting. I have only seen some of the cast in smaller roles before but nothing as substantial as here. Each played their convincing role as humble people that are forced to do things that make them feel uncomfortable in a bizarre set of circumstances. The two leads, Dowd and Walker are especially good.

Compliance plays out pretty much how you would expect it to but yet it still remained a powerful watch. What makes the premise so compelling and at the same time haunting is how it accurately shows weakness in human nature. If there is one thing you will get from the film, it is a reaction. Do not be surprised to find yourself debating your side when the credits roll.

Compliance received mixed reactions and has sparked some heated debates when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The trailer for this controversial film, which some believe contains political allegories, has arrived online today. While we will have to wait to before we can chime on the heated discussions of the film, take a look at the trailer.

Based on true events, Compliance is about a teenage counter girl named Becky (Dreama Walker) and her middle-aged fast food restaurant manager Sandra (Ann Dowd). One day a police offer calls the restaurant accusing Becky of stealing money from a customer which Sandra complies with the orders to detain her. What follows is an interrogation that leaves no-one unharmed.

Compliance is in theaters on August 17th, 2012.

Watch the official trailer for Compliance: