Levi Cash turns in a good directorial effort in Teen Manipulations—four short vignettes that demonstrate the dilemmas facing sexually desirable young girls. Do they avoid further problems by allowing older men to “manipulate” them into sex? Or do they remain strong and not let these men take advantage of them? This being adult, the former always wins over the latter.

Cash cleverly divides each scene into four separate states of being—Vulnerable, Naïve, Dilemma, Prey—painting the scenario before the scene begins and creating a dark look at the circumstances surrounding each girl. Each performer for the most part turns in convincing acting performances. Stacy Foxxx, being vulnerable, really makes you feel her family is going through deep financial problems and sees no way out of it unless she sleeps with her creepy peeping Tom landlord Tony D. Tony DeSergio senses how naïve his student Stella May is and convinces her she would be better off sleeping with him in order to expunge the antics she’s been caught doing from her school records. And Cash himself plays a convincing, albeit jerk of a hotel manager by taking advantage of a frightened and penniless prey, Daisy Haze (credited as Daisy Summers), after her friends wreck the suite they were staying at.

Sexually speaking, there’s good stuff here, but what goes wrong are the two middle scenes going way longer than necessary. Stella and Tony share a good chemistry with each other, but with the scene dragging on, whatever heat they generate dies down long before the scene ends. Dakota Skye and Cash have some sparks, but it’s obvious Cash is way more into the scene than Dakota, who seems to go through the motions at times. A shame, since the two scenes are bookended by a pair of excellently shot, well-performed ones. With a 97-minute run time, Teen Manipulations would have been better served with those two problem scenes being cut shorter in length. Despite that, it’s still worth a look.