Figuring out who you are as a teenager isn't an easy task. For many of us, it takes a really long time (some of us are still trying).

In "Pariah," Alike (Adepero Oduye) knows she's gay; that's a done deal. But the bigger question is where she fits into the bigger world. Her family is a major source of grief, but she's also struggling to find her place within the lesbian community. Writer-director Dees Rees' feature-length debut stands out because of the ways it explores the many layers of identity, from class to the butch/femme binary.

Unfortunately, Alike's parents aren't a great source of comfort. Her mom Audrey, played by Kim Wayans, likes to buy Alike girly clothes and go to church. She disapproves of Alike's friendship with Laura (Pernell Walker), who's a butch lesbian and high school dropout. Laura was thrown out by her mom after she came out, it's insinuated, so she works at a restaurant, lives with her sister, and studies for her GED when she's not out partying. Alike's dad Arthur (Charles Parnell) is a cop who has a fairly frigid relationship with Audrey; he adores his oldest daughter and refuses to believe she could be "like that" even though deep down he knows the truth. Of course, they both have their own secrets and reasons to feel like pariahs.

Alike doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere. Laura grooms her to look more butch, and Alike changes clothes in the bathroom at school to look more like her friend. That doesn't really work for her, though, as she's a shy poet who would love a girlfriend but isn't comfortable at the lesbian club that Laura takes her to. When Audrey forces Alike to be friendly with her coworker's daughter, Bina (Aasha Davis), Alike resists but soon finds she might have more in common with Bina than she originally thought.

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The contrasts between the different worlds Alike navigates are subtle. Bina likes rock and socially conscious hip hop and poetry; her family is more obviously middle class, and her room is colorful and full of tchotckes. Laura and the fast girls she runs with are into playing spades and listening to harder hip-hop, and she and her sister have to carefully balance which bills they can afford to pay that month. Alike's family has a nice brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which is a source of resentment for her father, who has to work even harder to provide the kind of lifestyle Audrey wants. And while Alike isn't typically butch, she's also not femme.

In the end, Alike has to prove to everyone that she's the person in charge of her identity and her future, that she's not running away but she's choosing. And what she chooses is a bright future, indeed.

Dee Rees recently won the Breakthrough Director prize at the Gotham Awards. "Pariah" was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, and Oduye was nominated for Best Female Lead. (The Spirit Awards take place in February.) Rees also has several promising projects in the works, such as an HBO show with Viola Davis and an optioned script with Focus Features.

"Pariah" opens December 28. Find out more on the official website or on the "Pariah" Facebook page.