L.I.E. A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"You got lanes going east," 15-year-old Howie Blitzer (Paul Franklin Dano) says of the L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway) as he cheats death by balancing precariously on an overpass guardrail over the L.I.E. "You got lanes going west. You also got lanes going straight to hell." Having recently lost his mother in a car accident on the L.I.E., he sees the freeway as a metaphor for his disastrous life.
The movie L.I.E., by commercial director Michael Cuesta and co-writers Stephen Ryder, Michael Cuesta and Gerald Cuesta, is about a lot of things. It's a tragic coming of age story. It's a story about restless youth. It's about a relationship between a boy and his parents. But what you're most likely to hear is that it is about pedophilia. The movie tries hard not to sensationalize this latter subject, but it doesn't back away from it either.
One thing is certain. Cuesta is an impressive visual stylist. He mixes intriguing long shots, as when he shoots Howie squirming uncomfortably on a wooden bench at a police station, with close-ups, as when he films Howie and his best bud, Gary Terrio (Billy Kay), chatting in silhouette next to a roaring bonfire.
Howie, Gary and a few of his friends have been robbing the upper middle class houses of their Long Island neighbors. They don't need the money really. They just like the momentary thrill of almost being caught. It provides them a drug-like rush that numbs the pain of their self-inflicted boredom.
Howie, a kid with a confused sexuality, is embarrassed to have never had sex with a girl. One telling day, he sneaks into his mom's makeup kit and puts her lipstick on his babyish lips, which house a mouth of metal braces. Thanks to Gary, who makes money by selling his body to other guys, Howie comes to know Big John Harrigan, a Vietnam vet who drives a sexy red 442 and who might have been a spy. Big John likes befriending young guys, which is certainly no crime. He also likes having sex with them, which wouldn't be illegal either, except that he is way too flexible on such matters as the age of consent. As Big John, Brian Cox, a veteran actor, would be up for Oscar consideration for his acting in this role, except there is probably zero chance of the Academy nominating an actor playing a pedophile. You can just imagine what hay an ambitious Senator could make with that nomination.
Exploring issues from sexuality to crime -- including that of Howie's father (Bruce Altman) who has his own run-in with the law over some shady business practices -- the movie is complex and engrossing. The film's only downfall is a needlessly pat ending that makes you wish that they would have made one more pass over the script before they started filming.
L.I.E. runs 1:48. It is rated NC-17 for "some explicit sexual content," and would be acceptable for college students.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, September 21, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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