L.I.E. (Unrated)
by Michael Cuesta
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DVD details
Actor: Billy Kay, Brian Cox, Bruce Altman, James Costa, Paul DanoDirector: Michael Cuesta
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
Published: 2002-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2002-06-04
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: New Yorker Video
DVD Reviews of L.I.E. (Unrated)
DVD Review: A shocking masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Howie Blitzer is having some serious trouble dealing with the death of his mother. His father is never around and is constantly with other women and his only friend is Gary, another troubled kid who Howie is somewhat sexually attracted to and who leads him and a couple other misfits to houses to steal from. Eventually, Howie and Gary rob the house of a pederast named Big John (Brian Cox). John finds Howie and at first sees him as another teen that he can fool around with. However, upon actually meeting Howie, he realizes that he needs a loving father a lot more than he needs a sexual partner and thus seeks to become a serious father figure to him and to be a proper male role model that can admire and respect the interests and efforts of him as a human being. Unfortunately, his desires can't be suppressed all that easily.
There is one single flaw with the film. That is the ending. The film ends in heartless violence. It would have been better to end ambiguously. It is a little disappointing to me that it ends so brutally. However, even that single flaw doesn't make me love the film any less. This is one of my favorite films. It is a film that I have always cherished, loved, and admired ever since the day that I saw it, many many years ago. It is a film that is so honest and so damn pitch-perfect in showing the kind of people that it is depicting and so fearless in it's story that it is so willing to tell that, to me, it is almost required viewing. This film spoke to me. I can really relate to the feelings and the situations of the film in a lot of ways because I had a terrible time back when I was fifteen since I had been bullied around and didn't really have anyone to talk to about my problems. I had experienced the loss of people I loved as well, and I to deal with those bad feelings for a lot longer than I would have liked due to circumstances beyond my control. I'll save my sob stories for a rainy day because I doubt that anyone really wants to hear any of it, but I can really relate to the Howie character. I think we all, at one time or another, felt a little like Howie Blitzer. He's a very relatable character who is developed in a much more straight forward and observant way than most films really care to. Despite his problems, and believe me he has PROBLEMS, he still is a good writer and he still appreciates art and the things that matter to him and we, as a viewer, get that first and foremost. That's one thing that I especially appreciated about this picture, L.I.E. It refuses to turn it's subject into a cliche.
I think that this film, first and foremost, is about the fear that most adults have of losing their children. In this film, it is the child who has experienced loss, and with that loss comes a serious emotional toll that affects his father in a much more disturbing and much more troubling way than the child is and we aren't spared any of this. What this film does differently is that it shows the troubling situation from the child's point of view and thus we get the sense that the situation seems quaint on the surface. What the child doesn't realize is the trouble that is soon to follow once his father's personal life and professional life both spiral out of control. Again, the audience does not get spared this development.
Then comes the pederast, played absolutely brilliantly by Brian Cox, and the situation grows increasingly alarming. There is no doubt given to the viewer that the pederast is intent on becoming sexually involved with the main character, and we are deeply disturbed by the development. A similar technique to this was depicted with the Kevin Spacey character in American Beauty, and the situation develops in a similar manner. To go off topic briefly, it's interesting to note that the would-be victim in American Beauty was a girl and the would-be victim in this film, L.I.E., is a boy, and yet American Beauty got away with an R rating from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) while L.I.E. was given an NC-17 rating for "some explicit sexual content". I don't think that it is any secret what I am implying. Anyway, eventually the horrific situation with the father affects the life of Howie and the pederast, Big John, is forced into Howie's life. I won't spoil what happens afterward, because what happens is what is at the heart of the film and what I think makes the film especially worth seeing. This film's frank portrayal of such disturbing taboo subject matter is done remarkably without ever becoming pornographic or exploitative.
I think that most people who watch this expecting something shocking will be somewhat disappointed. Don't get me wrong though. This film is shocking. It's very shocking. It's just not shocking in a perverted way such as the Todd Solondz film, Happiness, which is also, along with American Beauty, a brilliant, albeit repulsive, masterpiece of 90s filmmaking. Above all, however, I would like to see more films deal with the subjects of death, dysfunction, pederasty, and growing up in an honest and hard hitting way without being exploitative or pornographic. L.I.E. does not only this, but also takes it one step further by telling an original and thoughtful story in a way that is, in addition to being engrossing and gripping, is also surprisingly tender and true-to-life. Like I said above, this film spoke to me. It is the kind of film that I would have loved to have seen when I was growing up.
The performances are remarkably natural and extraordinary, the cinematography is top-notch, the script is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and the whole film has such a strong sense of intensity and ferocity that it's really difficult to stop watching it once you start. It does everything a film is supposed to do. It's extremely entertaining, challenging, and bizarre. It confronts the idea of being human and having normal human weaknesses. It is both a celebration and a denouncement. In other words, it is one of the best films of the 21st century.
Description of L.I.E. (Unrated)
A remarkable movie. "L.I.E." centers on Howie, a 15-year-old boy whose mother recently died in a car accident. Neglected by his father, an unscrupulous contractor who's constantly having sex with his new girlfriend, Howie falls in with a group of boys who break into houses for kicks. After one break-in Howie is caught by Big John (Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter from "Manhunter"), a former Marine with a taste for young boys. But the relationship that develops between Howie and Big John surprises them both. "L.I.E." captures male adolescence more genuinely than any other film in recent memory; the realism of the relationships, particularly between Howie and his father, is completely compelling. The movie affects all the senses; you can practically feel the texture of Howie's blue flannel sheets, smell the greenery that grows along the Long Island Expressway. Amazing performances, vivid direction, smartly written--superb all around. "--Bret Fetzer"A remarkable movie. L.I.E. centers on Howie, a 15-year-old boy whose mother recently died in a car accident. Neglected by his father, an unscrupulous contractor who's constantly having sex with his new girlfriend, Howie falls in with a group of boys who break into houses for kicks. After one break-in Howie is caught by Big John (Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter from Manhunter), a former Marine with a taste for young boys. But the relationship that develops between Howie and Big John surprises them both. L.I.E. captures male adolescence more genuinely than any other film in recent memory; the realism of the relationships, particularly between Howie and his father, is completely compelling. The movie affects all the senses; you can practically feel the texture of Howie's blue flannel sheets, smell the greenery that grows along the Long Island Expressway. Amazing performances, vivid direction, smartly written--superb all around. --Bret Fetzer
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