What’s up with Devon Sawa?  It seems like ever since he rose to semi-stardom in the “Teen Beat” community after playing the real-life Casper, he’s been going out of his way to pick the most drug-induced roles possible.  In a one-year period, he played a perpetually stoned high school student in Idle Hands, an acid casualty in SLC Punk! and, in the last of his ’99 flicks to hit video, a nice guy who starts to follow Phish and tokes up at any opportunity in Around the Fire.  Is he trying to become his generation’s Dennis Hopper?  It’s getting so that when I finally saw Final Destination, I figured the entire film was Sawa’s character taking a morbid LSD trip.

    Around the Fire begins as your basic coming-of-age flick, with troubled teenager Simon (Sawa) being sent to boarding school after getting caught shoplifting a pen.  The shift in education works out for the best, however, as Simon’s roommate (Eric Mabius) introduces him to the joy of hitting the bong and following a certain band with a devoted youthful hippie following.  This allows him to learn valuable lessons about life, discover himself, find true love, and do all the things coming-of-age characters do.

    Around the Fire manages to handle the potentially volatile subject matter with general ease, never really sinking into “Afterschool Special” territory with its’ treatment of drug use.  Sure, most of the movie is told in flashback with Simon explaining his story to a rehab counselor, but for a change, both pro- and anti-drug sides are taken.  The cast is fine, and while it does have a tendency to veer off into cliché, Sawa makes a fine lead and the film manages to be likeably engaging.  Watch for Stephen Tobolowsky in a great cameo as an LSD pharmacist.