L.I.E.

Rating:
Summary: Screwed Up
Review: They marketed this film as a gay film. This movie is not about homosexuality. If your looking for a gay film. Dont watch L.I.E. . If your looking for a movie to knock the wind out of you, watch it. Yes, i liked L.I.E. its a good movie and the acting was amazing but for the most part its hard to take. Its a movie about a petaphile named Big John who collects little boys. He scedules appointments with them and files them by a collection of poloroids (not esplicit ones, pretty much head shots). The funny thing is, he has them thinking theres nothing wrong with this. He finds young Howie when Howie steals his gun in a break in. Then he begins a relationship with howie by howie coming to his house on a regular basis. Twisted movie.. it made me a bit nauscious, but as i said, the acting and characters were great.. its worth seeing..

Rating:
Summary: False rebel movie
Review: In this movie, the director, screenplay writer, Michael CUESTA, uses all the tricks of the "trash advertising" like O. Toscani for Beneton) to sell his story. The real subject of the film is a familly decomposition in the Long Island bourgeoisie... But the director try to catch the attention in a disgusting pedophilic conotation, only for provocative purposes (cliché from "the night of the hunter" of Charles Laughton mixed with "psycho" from Hitchcock). One of the other disgusting cliché used in this film is the part of the father which is presented as a crook, and which is, by a very "special chance" presented as jewish (old antisemitic cliché...). Another poor trick is the way to quote "Casablanca", the very famous classic movie, to please movie goers...
This film is just an addition of poor clichés about teenagers, the young poet, suburbs, american family....despite a good cast (especially for the teenage hero Paul Franklin DANO), this film must be classified at the lowest degre of cinematography...this is a trash movie.

Rating:
Summary: Do It Better Next Time
Review: The boy, Billy Kay who played bad-boy Gary in the film in a 2001 interview said, "no kid comes of age without meeting someone like Big John." Big John Harrigan is the boy-lover character played with great depth by Brian Cox. Cox once played a true Hannibal Lector in the 1986 movie "Manhunter".

I want to say thank you to writer Stephen Ryder for bringing us this coming of age film even with a boy in it who charges for others to watch him making love to his sister. How much like my own experiences growing up in a small town in 1950's Oklahoma.

I would encourage Ryder to approach these subjects again this time pointing out how the politically correct are encouraging the murder and imprisonment of men like Big John Harrigan and the shaming and confusing of boys by way of their racist-like bigotry. The words Salem and Witches and Communist and phrases like 'Burning at the stake' come to mind. Ryder, you need to take out the word "ashamed".

Stephen Ryder you might become our new Arthur Miller. You have got much work to do.

I recommend to you dear reader a thoughtful viewing and purchase of this movie, L.I.E.

Rating:
Summary: A Must See
Review: Words can not begin to describe the amount of raw passion felt in this movie. I would classify it as one of the best comming of age films I have seen in a long time. To be honest Louis Mal could not compare. Watch for it on the Sundance Channel but a must buy for the deleted scenes. Well Worth It!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: look for the message
Review: when i first saw this movie, i didnt know what to expect. but i thought i would give it a try, the main character, Howie, is a 14 year old boy who, having just lost his mother in a car accident, and lost the relationship he has with his father, turns to some guys he met at school, trying to fit in, he joins them in acts of hoodlumism, in the proccess becomes the target of a pedophile, but what happens with there relationship is more than what you might expect. The main characters are perfect and the movie is right up there with them. if you realy get into the movie(like i did) then you wont be able to turn it off, and afterwards it will stay with you for a while. there is alot to learn from this movie and the only way to know, is to watch it.
highly recomended, low budget film.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, disturbing, unforgettable film
Review: L.I.E. is one of those rare movies that takes a jaded viewer like me off-guard to such an extent that I had to watch it twice to see if I heard what I thought I heard and saw what I thought I saw.

The performaces, especially Brian Cox and the cadre of young men featured in the cast, were phenomenal, almost effortless. The film hits the ground running and engrossed me from the start.

Mind you, the subject matter is disturbing. You want to look away, but the writing and performances are so compelling that you look at it like you might watch a news story -- unflinchingly.

In the tradition of KIDS, we see how nightmarish life can be for kids swept up in the deepest undercurrents of dark society. The lost innocence is so tragic and yet so familiar. Howie, the conflicted but suprisingly calm protagonist, brilliant portrayed by Dano, is one of the most unforgettable characters of recent cinema.

Brian Cox is definitely creepy, but at the same time he is endearing. You want to like him, pity him, but hate him and imprison him all at once.

The ending was a bit abrupt, but I suppose it was meant to capture the fluidity of life in a place like the L.I.E.

Truly a gripping and unforgettable coming of age movie, and one of the most compelling glimpses of enigmatic evil since "Apocalypse Now."

Rating:
Summary: Well nuanced
Review: This was an excellent film filled with ambiguities. The director could've made the characters into caricatures but instead, he opted for a more nuanced, and thus fair and realistic, portrayal. Such as Howie, the pseudo-tough 16 year old who breaks into houses with his comrades but admits to being a virgin and refers to his late "mommy." There was a scene where Howie and Big John are presumably about to have sex when Howie learns that his father had been arrested (rather than having abandonned him). Howie still wants to the intimacy of sex, but Big John surprisingly refuses to take advantage of the kid in this vulnerable moment. Of course, the man is not a saint; he targets generally vulnerable youth. But even he recognized that this was not the moment. The fact that someone who was portrayed as a sleazeball throughout could be given an ounce of human feeling is an example of the nuance I was talking about. The acting, the cinematography and especially the use of music was excellent. The actor who played Howie did a masterful job of portraying a kid pretending to be tough, but actually vulnerable and truly confused. The only complaint I have is that the ending came out of nowhere. The whole movie was Howie being gloomy and angst-ridden and then suddenly it concludes with him insisting he will survive, get through it, bla bla bla. When did this transformation of mentality occur?

Rating:
Summary: Love and death on Long Island
Review: First-time feature director Michael Cuesta's dark suburban fable is a tough proposition. Set in the outer reaches of Long Island, it's the story of a 15-year-old boy who, as his family disappears from around him, finds a friend and substitute father in a total stranger. The rub is that the stranger happens to be a 55-year-old pedophile.

The title is short for the Long Island Expressway, a multi-lane strip of fast-moving traffic that runs the length of the Island and each year claims the lives of a number of unlucky travelers. One of those lives belonged to Sheila Blitzer; now her son Howie (Paul Franklin Dano), a bright but bored teenager of a poetic bent, lives alone with his father, Marty (Bruce Altman), in their sterile, modern home. Marty, a successful building contractor, is facing possible indictment for installing faulty wiring in a public building that later burned to the ground; preoccupied with his own troubles, Marty leaves his son to his own devices.

Howie has a serious, unacknowledged crush on his best friend, Gary (Billy Kay), and together they've taken to breaking into houses in upscale neighborhoods. But Gary is also into stuff that even Howie doesn't know about: He's been earning extra cash as a hustler, prostituting himself at the notorious cruising grounds scattered along the L.I.E. One night Gary suggests sneaking into the home of "Big John" Harrigan (Brian Cox), who has a pair of valuable pistols stored in the basement. They grab the guns and make a narrow escape, but Big John - a burly ex-Marine with a taste for underage boys - knows exactly who the culprit is, because he's one of Gary's regular johns. Big John confronts Gary, Gary fingers Howie, and when Howie can produce only one of the stolen pistols, Big John suggests they come to a different sort of payback arrangement.

The subject matter is certainly controversial - it's not every day that we see a sympathetic portrayal of a pedophile - but Cuesta avoids the taint of salaciousness, thanks in large part to a brilliant performance from Cox. Cox's sensitively characterized Big John is a glad-handing sexual predator whose bonhomie is undercut by barely concealed self-loathing. That the film, like Todd Solondz's HAPPINESS, manages to find room in its heart for even the most indecent obsessions is less a sign of its own perversion than of its enormous capacity for empathy.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing touch of human ambiguity...
Review: L.I.E. takes place along the Long Island Expressway on which many have lost their lives. The main character Howie is not an exception, because he has lost his mother along the L.I.E.. He is severely neglected by his father who is has legal, financial, and emotional struggles of his own. In addition, his delinquent adolescent friends provide the only source of attention, but their affection is built on a chauvinistically skewed male perception. L.I.E. is a unpleasant and disturbing film that provides moments of distress. However, the story also displays Howie's search for caring affection which he needs in order to find himself. The film will provoke the audience, yet it will also affectionately touch them with human ambiguity.

Rating:
Summary: A quietly devastating film
Review: It's no wonder that this movie has had mounds of awards and critical praise heaped upon it. It's truly remarkable and lingers with you long after the viewing. I'll not recap the plot as that can be found in Amazon.com's review, but in all earnestness, to take such disquieting subject matter and craft it into a touching and thought-provoking movie is the work of no small talent indeed. Cuestra deserves all the accolades he receives for this alone. The performances turned in by Brian Cox, Paul Franklin Dano and Billy Kay are truly devastating in their sincerity, especially those of Cox and Dano. I can scarcely contain the respect I have for people who are so truly gifted as to deliver such compelling and believable performances. One of my favorite lines from a review of this movie summed up the humanity of the pedarest Big John best by saying something to the effect that the victim was choosing to be ensnared, but the predator chose not to strike. Truly, this is not a "sick man" to be easily encapsulated and defined, and summarily dismissed -- he is just a man who lives with his unfortunate sickness, much as do alcoholics, drug addicts or pathological adulterers. This is certainly not a "date" movie, nor is one for the closed of mind or prudish of spirit, but for the open and engaged mind, you'll find few movies as haunting and effective as "L.I.E."