I'm interrupting my reviews of the "forgotten favourites" to tell you about this amazing film, which I've seen last night at the cinema.
L.I.E. (2001)
Directed by Michael Cuesta
Boy actors: Paul Franklin Dano, Billy Kay, James Costa
Also starring: Brian Cox (in the role of Big John).
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That beautiful boy on the poster is Paul Franklin Dano, who plays Howie Blitzer in this amazing film. Although Paul was 17 in 2001, his character is only 15 and he doesn't look any older than that in the film.
The film opens with Howie standing on a bridge over the L.I.E - Long Island Expressway. He walks on the railing, then turns toward the road as if he was going to jump. This scene is repeated again in the end, after the rest of the film has explained what brought him to that desperate position. Is he going to jump? I'm not going to tell you!
After that chilling opening, Howie says in a voice over: "The Long Island Expressway. You've got the lanes going East. You've got the lanes going West. You've also got the lanes going straight to hell." He explains that several have died on the L.I.E., including his mother, recently.
His father has already found a new woman (a "bimbo" as Howie calls her, who doesn't say a word throughout the film) and is involved in some sort of construction scandal for which he might have to go to jail. He doesn't pay much attention to Howie, except when he pounds him in the face for skipping school, giving him a black eye.
Howie also has problems at school and has fallen with the wrong crowd. His friends are involved in a series of "break and enters," robbing houses in the neighbourhood. Howie goes along, but doesn't really steal anything. Mostly, he follows because he likes to be around Gary (played by Billy Kay), for whom he is developping feelings that go beyond friendship. Gary also hints that he might share these feelings, but Howie doesn't dare make the first move.
Howie is not a happy kid, and it's only going to get worse when a man whose house he and Gary have broken into turns out to be a sort of predator of young boys (Big John, played to perfection by Brian Cox). He promises not to tell the cops, but what exactly does he want in return?
I use the word "predator" because that's the way he is originally presented. There's an awesome scene, set to the song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan, where he drives around in his cool old car (I know nothing about cars, but everyone else on the planet would probably recognize it as something or other - the dream car of any adolescent boy, apparently), sniffing a piece of Howie's jeans that ripped off when he tried to grab him after discovering him and Gary in his basement.
But as the film progresses, we find out that it's not so clear cut. Big John may in fact turn out to be Howie's only true friend. His character is thoroughly ambiguous and we can only guess at his real intentions. As for Howie, he is at first disturbed by the man's attention, but he soon finds himself strangely attracted at the same time.
L.I.E. does what For a Lost Soldier failed to do: it explores the possibility of relationships between men and boys in all the complexity that such an issue diserves. The film's most important and amazing quality is that it manages to explore this topic without falling into vulgarity, without exploiting the subject matter for shock value, and without passing a judgement. Everything remains open-ended and it is meant to provoke thought rather than dictate a certain way of thinking about the issue. It does not glorify sex between men and boys, but it does not demonize it either.
Incidentally, there are no sex scenes between men and boys in the film. In fact, the only sex and nudity we see on the screen is a very brief scene between Howie's father and the "bimbo." And yet - this blows my mind - the film managed to receive the NC-17 rating in the U.S. for "explicit sexual content involving teens." This is completely insane and I can't understand how such a blatant misrating could have occured. Thankfully, the MPAA agreed to bring it down to an R for the video release. (In Canada, the theatrical version - the same as was released in the States - was also rated R). For those interested in this controversy, check out the film's official page on the Lot 47 Films website. There is a section on the MPAA rating, which contains some very useful and interesting information.
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)The film does have a few flaws. I have to say I have mixed feelings about the ending, and there's one element that has bothered me throughout the film (a character that seemed not to fit in and might have been better left out). I don't want to go into details about this, because I don't want to give away essential plot elements for those who haven't seen it. But in spite of these minor flaws, I gave the film a rating of 10/10 on IMDb, simply because the subject matter was treated in such an intelligent way that I felt it deserved a perfect rating nonetheless.
Aside from being an intelligent film, this is also a very beautiful one. Paul Franklin Dano is a very gifted actor and I hope he has a brilliant career ahead of him (although he won't be a boy for much longer, sadly!). He is also very pleasant to look at. My favourite scene comes toward the end, when Big John shaves Howie'S face with one of those old-fashioned straight-blade razors. Set to beautiful score music, the scene has the camera lingering on Howie's face in an extreme close up. It is one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen on film.
Beautiful, intelligent, tasteful, provocative without being shocking or vulgar... see this film as soon as you have a chance. I don't know if it's out on DVD and video yet, but it should be coming soon. (And when it is, someone ought to make a set of nice captures of it - the image above is the only one I could find on the Internet.) I do hope you all get a chance to see this, sooner or later.
(Edited by josephk at 3:55 am on May 6, 2002)