The younger actors bring varying degrees of experience to bear on their roles, but all capture the desperation beneath their characters' tough fronts, while the NYC locations are suitably depressing.

Clichéd though it may be, this movie was clearly made with love.

As writer as well as star, Dedio expresses passionate concern for the lost young souls of Lower Manhattan but by and large doesn't define his characters strongly enough to involve the viewer in their fates very deeply.

Amounts to little more than a downbeat soap opera as half a dozen squatters -- hustler, junkie, stripper, queer, fallen Madonna and skank, with a mentally challenged roomie thrown in for good measure -- try to hold their lives together in a grungy New York loft just days before Christmas. Think "Rent" without the music.