Blood seeps from beneath a locked door at a comfortable suburban Australian high school and the question of what happened and who is inside is answered in flashbacks in Murali K. Thalluri's gripping "2:37." The focus is on seven youngsters of various types from the hunky jock with his pretty but needy girlfriend, a brother and sister whose lives are made tense by an overbearing father, a gay dope-smoker, a kid with a bladder problem, and a sweet-faced people pleaser. Thalluri was 20 years old when he made the picture and being not long out of high school has perhaps helped him craft such an absorbing drama.

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