On the Outs

At first glance, this melodrama about three inner-city women has all the markings of an earnest message movie about the ravages of drug use on today's urban youth. And there's a string of all-too-familiar plot points straight out of Ghetto Life 101: black men waving guns, teen pregnancy, a crack addict giving head for a fix. But to their credit, codirectors Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik sidestep the shorthand character sketches and social-agenda liberalism that populate second-rate TV cop dramas and afterschool specials.