You know who should have won all the awards by now? Paul Dano, who has done nothing but fantastic work ever since his breakout role in Little Miss Sunshine but NOOOO...we can't POSSIBLY give him an Oscar or six, he's an offbeat character actor! Even though it appears he's getting praise for 12 Years a Slave, those nominations are all for ensemble casts, so they don't really count. Dano has one of the most original presences in film today and is totally unafraid to take risks - his performance as the mentally stunted Alex Jones in Prisoners* is one of the most haunting elements of an already stunning psychological horror film, and the fact that he's not up for anything for it makes me want to smash the Academy's face in a pile of barbecued dog hair. That being said, one of his most affecting performances is actually one of his first, one he did when he was only 17 and got him a bunch of (now forgotten) praise - L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway). Gaining some paltry controversy upon its wide release for the MPAA slapping it with an NC-17 rating (forcing the filmmakers to make an R-rated re-edit), L.I.E. remains one of the best explorations of the pains of coming of age I've ever seen on film.
15-year-old Howie Blitzer (Dano) isn't getting through his sophomore year of High School without a fight. Still reeling from the recent death of his mother on the Long Island Expressway (which Howie informs us also killed Harry Chapin and Alan J. Pakula), Howie isn't getting much attention from his father (Bruce Altman, the psychiatrist in Matchstick Men), a walking blood pressure bomb who is recently coming under F.B.I. investigation because of shady contracting work that resulted in a tragic house fire. He has companionship in Gary (Billy Kay, the baby in Three Men and a Baby; I'm not kidding), unnervingly pretty and a peg up from Dickensian street urchin, and to a lesser extent the quite ordinary Brian (Tony Donnelly) and the more-quite idiotic Kevin (James Costa), who is unconvinced that sleeping with his sister will get her pregnant. The four of them spend their time cutting class and burglarizing local houses under Gary's leadership, though Gary's attentions are mostly fixated upon Howie. The two of them share a palpable sexual tension, but Howie is unsure of how he feels about Gary and himself - Gary pitches the idea of the two of them running away to California, and Howie agrees, though it's not clear if he really believes Gary's offer. Gary gets Howie to break into the home of middle-aged ex-marine Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox, Manhunter's Hannibal Lecter) during his birthday party on the pretense of robbing the place, but Gary starts trashing his basement and cursing his name. John runs down to catch them but they get away, but not with John ripping off the back pocket of Howie's jeans.
As it turns out, Big John is an ephebophile, and Gary has been hustling on the side with John as one of his regulars. John confronts him about a pair of valuable Vietcong handguns that are missing (as well as a hook-up) before driving around Howie's neighborhood with his pants pocket like "Cinderella's glass slipper", as he calls it later. He later finds Howie at a pizza place and introduces himself in French - he claims he knew Howie's mother, and she told him all about Howie and his French skills, though John probably got the information from Gary. He invites Howie to come to his house to return the guns, and Howie swings by, currently at odds with a school counselor trying to keep him from getting expelled and his father, who caught him cutting class and angrily punched him in the eye (his lawyer had a fatal heart attack at lunch). When he arrives at John's house, getting a faceful of John's Marine Hymn doorbell as well as meeting John's 19-year-old lover Scott (Walter Masterson), he gives John the gun case only to find one missing; he says that's all he could find, as he had to retrieve it from Gary's room when he wasn't there. He asks if he can work off the $1000 the missing gun is worth, and John bemusedly takes Howie into the living room (which has a porn playing on a TV) to talk. While John appears to be friendly, and the two bond a bit over Howie's surprising cultural knowledge (he recognizes a Chagall print on the wall), he asks if Howie knows anything about him, then starts rubbing his leg, asking if he has anything worth $1000. "Five inches is a lot of snow, it's a tremendous amount of rain but it ain't a whole lot of dick. You got more than five inches, Howard?"
We see that Gary was at Howie's house; he had seen Howie's Dad going through an envelope stuffed with cash earlier and dropped by to steal it and skip town. Howie's dad later tears his room apart looking for the cash, only to be greeted at the door by the F.B.I., who take him into custody. With both his dad and his best friend gone and having been picked up by the police on suspicion of local burglaries, Howie is taken in by John, their relationship becoming more subtle and complex, leading Howie to striking realizations of his own identity and the emotional journey into the wilds of adulthood.
OK, oh-kay, room elephants first - L.I.E. deals with a number of sensitive topics, such as broken families, incest, ephebophilia, child prostitution and juvenile delinquency. However, first-time writer-director Michael Cuesta is in no mood for obvious moralizing. The movie isn't about any one of those topics, but rather about its deeply-drawn characters and how these issues are decor in their lives. Howie, his dad, Gary and John are all highly complex, flawed people, and their desires and frustrations, and especially the way their lives intertwine, can't be pigeonholed into a PTA agenda. Cuesta is likewise uninterested in giving easy answers to uncomfortable questions, and the way they are explored is extraordinarily intelligent and thought-provoking. We don't see the story as a series of moralistic mile markers - it's just an expertly-told story with serious and troubling undercurrents. For example, sexuality is a major theme in the film, but there is no sex and hardly even nudity, save for the male leads each appearing shirtless at different times in the movie. The genius of L.I.E. is that the characters are all unique and compelling, each dealing with very specific issues, but we can see echoes of larger issues that are present in our own lives, even if we have never robbed houses or lost our parents to death or imprisonment. While you may not have met anybody quite like Howie in your life, his emotional journey is very true to both adolescence and sexual discovery. Sex is largely forbidden before college, so it's easy for teenagers to have no idea about their orientation for many years. I went through all of Middle and High schools before I figured out that I was attracted to men, and that was only because a crush sent a shock through my system and the realization dropped on me like a ton of bricks. As somebody who should be able to tell, I can say with no hesitation that Howie's arc of realization is one of the most sensitive and intelligent depictions of the discovery of sexual identity I've ever seen in fiction.**
While the script is fantastic enough, what really makes the movie is its performances. Dano is known these days for his more unhinged performances and strange roles, but Howie is his most naturalistic, sympathetic performance I've seen. Great child actors are few and far between, and Dano displays a skill and self-control well beyond his years. Brian Cox is an intimidating presence as Big John, completely fearless and having great fun with the dramatic possibilities of a largely despicable character. Considering that he played Hannibal Lecter with great skill and engrossment in Michael Mann's Manhunter, it comes as no surprise that he's willing to plunge into his role here. Billy Kay may have initially been cast for his striking beauty, but he's a formidably precocious counterpoint to Howie's hesitations, completely aware of himself and equally amoral. Bruce Altman is both frustrating and sympathetic as Howie's dad, torn by the growing distance between him and his son and increasingly afraid of his legal situation. The other actors are immediately vivid, a must considering how intricate the story is for a 95-minute movie.
As per the NC-17 rating, I've only seen the R-rated cut and have no idea what was trimmed to get it down to that version, but I suspect it was something largely inconsequential. The MPAA is stacked in favor of studio movies, and an independent film about juvenile delinquency and underage prostitution is exactly the kind of movie they like slapping the Seal of Death on. For what it's worth, the movie is quite flowing and shows no signs of being chopped up, so it's possible the cut scenes weren't even that necessary. The R version even includes a scene where Howie masturbates while trying to go to sleep, a scene you'd think the MPAA would force out of the movie but was left seemingly untouched. If I were you I wouldn't worry about the rating in the least bit, as the movie is anything but exploitative. L.I.E. is a brilliant and engrossing coming of age story whose characters and themes grow more fascinating with each viewing. The questions it raises are worth debating, and the story is so rich that there's a new detail or talking point waiting around every corner. Its two DVD editions, one R-rated and the other Unrated, went out of print with the collapse of their distributor, New Yorker Video, but you can find it on demand or your local library (or Scarecrow Video if you live near Seattle). Despite what its trailer may tell you, the most shocking thing about L.I.E. is the fact that it hasn't been heralded as a new classic by now.
~PNK
*Prisoners is easily one of the most snubbed movies at the Oscars this year, only getting nominated for Cinematography. It's still my second favorite movie of 2013 (after Frances Ha), a grand and harrowing journey through psycho-thriller Hell on par with The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en.
**I'd also recommend the haunting novella Behind the Door by Giorgio Bassani, the author of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
15-year-old Howie Blitzer (Dano) isn't getting through his sophomore year of High School without a fight. Still reeling from the recent death of his mother on the Long Island Expressway (which Howie informs us also killed Harry Chapin and Alan J. Pakula), Howie isn't getting much attention from his father (Bruce Altman, the psychiatrist in Matchstick Men), a walking blood pressure bomb who is recently coming under F.B.I. investigation because of shady contracting work that resulted in a tragic house fire. He has companionship in Gary (Billy Kay, the baby in Three Men and a Baby; I'm not kidding), unnervingly pretty and a peg up from Dickensian street urchin, and to a lesser extent the quite ordinary Brian (Tony Donnelly) and the more-quite idiotic Kevin (James Costa), who is unconvinced that sleeping with his sister will get her pregnant. The four of them spend their time cutting class and burglarizing local houses under Gary's leadership, though Gary's attentions are mostly fixated upon Howie. The two of them share a palpable sexual tension, but Howie is unsure of how he feels about Gary and himself - Gary pitches the idea of the two of them running away to California, and Howie agrees, though it's not clear if he really believes Gary's offer. Gary gets Howie to break into the home of middle-aged ex-marine Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox, Manhunter's Hannibal Lecter) during his birthday party on the pretense of robbing the place, but Gary starts trashing his basement and cursing his name. John runs down to catch them but they get away, but not with John ripping off the back pocket of Howie's jeans.
As it turns out, Big John is an ephebophile, and Gary has been hustling on the side with John as one of his regulars. John confronts him about a pair of valuable Vietcong handguns that are missing (as well as a hook-up) before driving around Howie's neighborhood with his pants pocket like "Cinderella's glass slipper", as he calls it later. He later finds Howie at a pizza place and introduces himself in French - he claims he knew Howie's mother, and she told him all about Howie and his French skills, though John probably got the information from Gary. He invites Howie to come to his house to return the guns, and Howie swings by, currently at odds with a school counselor trying to keep him from getting expelled and his father, who caught him cutting class and angrily punched him in the eye (his lawyer had a fatal heart attack at lunch). When he arrives at John's house, getting a faceful of John's Marine Hymn doorbell as well as meeting John's 19-year-old lover Scott (Walter Masterson), he gives John the gun case only to find one missing; he says that's all he could find, as he had to retrieve it from Gary's room when he wasn't there. He asks if he can work off the $1000 the missing gun is worth, and John bemusedly takes Howie into the living room (which has a porn playing on a TV) to talk. While John appears to be friendly, and the two bond a bit over Howie's surprising cultural knowledge (he recognizes a Chagall print on the wall), he asks if Howie knows anything about him, then starts rubbing his leg, asking if he has anything worth $1000. "Five inches is a lot of snow, it's a tremendous amount of rain but it ain't a whole lot of dick. You got more than five inches, Howard?"
We see that Gary was at Howie's house; he had seen Howie's Dad going through an envelope stuffed with cash earlier and dropped by to steal it and skip town. Howie's dad later tears his room apart looking for the cash, only to be greeted at the door by the F.B.I., who take him into custody. With both his dad and his best friend gone and having been picked up by the police on suspicion of local burglaries, Howie is taken in by John, their relationship becoming more subtle and complex, leading Howie to striking realizations of his own identity and the emotional journey into the wilds of adulthood.
OK, oh-kay, room elephants first - L.I.E. deals with a number of sensitive topics, such as broken families, incest, ephebophilia, child prostitution and juvenile delinquency. However, first-time writer-director Michael Cuesta is in no mood for obvious moralizing. The movie isn't about any one of those topics, but rather about its deeply-drawn characters and how these issues are decor in their lives. Howie, his dad, Gary and John are all highly complex, flawed people, and their desires and frustrations, and especially the way their lives intertwine, can't be pigeonholed into a PTA agenda. Cuesta is likewise uninterested in giving easy answers to uncomfortable questions, and the way they are explored is extraordinarily intelligent and thought-provoking. We don't see the story as a series of moralistic mile markers - it's just an expertly-told story with serious and troubling undercurrents. For example, sexuality is a major theme in the film, but there is no sex and hardly even nudity, save for the male leads each appearing shirtless at different times in the movie. The genius of L.I.E. is that the characters are all unique and compelling, each dealing with very specific issues, but we can see echoes of larger issues that are present in our own lives, even if we have never robbed houses or lost our parents to death or imprisonment. While you may not have met anybody quite like Howie in your life, his emotional journey is very true to both adolescence and sexual discovery. Sex is largely forbidden before college, so it's easy for teenagers to have no idea about their orientation for many years. I went through all of Middle and High schools before I figured out that I was attracted to men, and that was only because a crush sent a shock through my system and the realization dropped on me like a ton of bricks. As somebody who should be able to tell, I can say with no hesitation that Howie's arc of realization is one of the most sensitive and intelligent depictions of the discovery of sexual identity I've ever seen in fiction.**
While the script is fantastic enough, what really makes the movie is its performances. Dano is known these days for his more unhinged performances and strange roles, but Howie is his most naturalistic, sympathetic performance I've seen. Great child actors are few and far between, and Dano displays a skill and self-control well beyond his years. Brian Cox is an intimidating presence as Big John, completely fearless and having great fun with the dramatic possibilities of a largely despicable character. Considering that he played Hannibal Lecter with great skill and engrossment in Michael Mann's Manhunter, it comes as no surprise that he's willing to plunge into his role here. Billy Kay may have initially been cast for his striking beauty, but he's a formidably precocious counterpoint to Howie's hesitations, completely aware of himself and equally amoral. Bruce Altman is both frustrating and sympathetic as Howie's dad, torn by the growing distance between him and his son and increasingly afraid of his legal situation. The other actors are immediately vivid, a must considering how intricate the story is for a 95-minute movie.
As per the NC-17 rating, I've only seen the R-rated cut and have no idea what was trimmed to get it down to that version, but I suspect it was something largely inconsequential. The MPAA is stacked in favor of studio movies, and an independent film about juvenile delinquency and underage prostitution is exactly the kind of movie they like slapping the Seal of Death on. For what it's worth, the movie is quite flowing and shows no signs of being chopped up, so it's possible the cut scenes weren't even that necessary. The R version even includes a scene where Howie masturbates while trying to go to sleep, a scene you'd think the MPAA would force out of the movie but was left seemingly untouched. If I were you I wouldn't worry about the rating in the least bit, as the movie is anything but exploitative. L.I.E. is a brilliant and engrossing coming of age story whose characters and themes grow more fascinating with each viewing. The questions it raises are worth debating, and the story is so rich that there's a new detail or talking point waiting around every corner. Its two DVD editions, one R-rated and the other Unrated, went out of print with the collapse of their distributor, New Yorker Video, but you can find it on demand or your local library (or Scarecrow Video if you live near Seattle). Despite what its trailer may tell you, the most shocking thing about L.I.E. is the fact that it hasn't been heralded as a new classic by now.
~PNK
*Prisoners is easily one of the most snubbed movies at the Oscars this year, only getting nominated for Cinematography. It's still my second favorite movie of 2013 (after Frances Ha), a grand and harrowing journey through psycho-thriller Hell on par with The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en.
**I'd also recommend the haunting novella Behind the Door by Giorgio Bassani, the author of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
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