Entertainment

Daydream Nation

Besides playing the second female lead in “Thor,” gorgeous actress-to-watch Kat Dennings has a juicy central role as a road-company “Juno” in Michael Goldbach’s oddly compelling indie quirkfest about a snarky high school girl involved in a triangle with a virginal stoner classmate (Reece Thompson) and a hunky English teacher (perpetually underused Josh Lucas).

Her depressed, cancer-ridden single dad (Ted Whittall) has exiled our horny 17-year-old heroine to a remote town where a toxic-waste fire burns endlessly in the background and a serial killer is on the loose. The country (Canada) is identified obliquely and amusingly: “There’s more incest in this town than in an Atom Egoyan movie,” Dennings says.

Toggling between the tonalities of “Donnie Darko,” “Ghost World” and the collected works of David Lynch, the blackly witty “Daydream Nation” takes its title from a Sonic Youth album. There are drug fantasies, elaborate flashbacks and a wonderfully goofy Andie MacDowell as Thompson’s single mom. It’s worth seeking out when it arrives on DVD on May 17, following a token theatrical release.