Barnes & Noble

L.I.E., the directorial debut of Michael Cuesta, tells the disturbing story of a sensitive, upper-middle-class Long Island teen (Paul Franklin Dano) who is drifting aimlessly into a life of crime when he finds a most unusual mentor in a middle-aged ex-Marine (Brian Cox) who happens to be a pederast. L.I.E. is as disconcerting as they come, painting a picture of a sterile suburban landscape permeated by pedophilia, incest, and white-collar crime. The banality of the evil here calls to mind the films of Todd Solondz and Larry Clark, but Cuesta eschews both the satire of films such as Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse and the bleak hopelessness of Kids. He chooses, instead, rather daringly, to focus on the core of humanity beneath the depravity. Cox is key to the film's success -- his amazing performance teeters on the edge of the demonic before it opens into a realm where real compassion can be found even in the heart of a man who's past the point of redemption. Ultimately, while L.I.E. does its all to expose suburban life as a lie, the simple decency that is revealed beneath it becomes the film's liberating truth. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

A teenaged boy in desperate need of a father figure finds one in a place no one should ever have to look in this controversial drama. Howie (Paul Franklin Dano) is a 15-year-old who has been emotionally at sea ever since the death of his mother in an auto accident several years before. Howie's father Marty (Bruce Altman) is also having trouble dealing with the loss, and distracts himself with empty sex while avoiding authorities attempting to prosecute him for using unsafe materials in his building contracting business. Howie falls in with a group of homeless delinquents his own age, becoming especially close to streetwise Gary (Billy Kay). In time, Howie begins to wonder if his feelings for Gary go past ordinary friendship, but the issue of his sexuality is forced into a very different light after Gary persuades Howie to join him in robbing the home of middle-aged former Marine Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox). It doesn't take long for Big John to track down the culprits after Howie and Gary steal several guns from his house, but Howie learns that Big John and Gary have met before -- Gary sometimes works as a male prostitute, and Big John, whose tastes run to boys in their early teens, is a regular customer. When Gary runs away to California, Big John proposes that Howie work off their debt by having sex with him; while Howie is hardly comfortable with this arrangement, he has nowhere else to go after his father ends up in jail, and he finds an unexpected degree of emotional support in his relationship with the curiously compassionate pedophile, who comes to understand just how badly Howie needs help. L.I.E. (the title stands for "Long Island Expressway") premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Mark Deming

Rolling Stone

It's a powerful and provocative achievement from a first-time filmmaker of enormous promise. Peter Travers

Los Angeles Times

L.I.E. has embraced tragedy, folly, perversity and outrageous dark humor. Like Happiness and American Beauty, it takes an unflinching look at the darker aspects of life in American suburbia. Kevin Thomas

Product Details

• UPC: 717119850241
• Source: NEW YORKER VIDEO
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English
• Time: 1:37:00

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