Cheap L.I.E. (Rated Version) (DVD) (Michael Cuesta) Price

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Customer Reviews of L.I.E. (Rated Version)

Not a "Gay Film"
The gross misnomer "Gay Film" has been applied to this masterful work too many times. It is a brilliantly acted, and well-written coming-of-age story (in intriguing genre, for the film is hardly clich�) of a 15-year-old boy named Howie Blitzer (expertly played by Paul Dano). While it is the acting of the relatively young Dano that shines in this film, Brian Cox is also fabulous - both tender and frightening - often in the same scene, promulgated by Michael Cuesta's direction. Additionally, the editing choices of this film were also quite good. <
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>The viewer learns in the first five minutes that Howie's mother has recently died and he is still a bit messed up over the whole affair. He also has fallen into a group of somewhat stereotypical juvenile delinquents who cut school and hang out at the back of a pizza place (and inside the place at one point) debating whether its "clitoris" or "clintosaurus," "Dr. Bones McCoy" or "Dr. Phones McCoy" from Star Trek. <
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>It is a motley bunch for sure, including a guy who "f--ks his sister," the corrections officer's son who wishes he had a sister, the punk of ambiguous sexuality named Gary (played by Billy Kay) who gets passed around the Long Island teen sex circuit like the plague, an Howie, the kid who doesn't know if he's gay, straight, or what. They get their kicks out of breaking into houses. But after one successful break-in between Howie and Gary, in which two expensive pistols are stolen Howie is nearly apprehended his entire life changes. <
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>It seems that Gary knew the man who owned the house that he and Howie broke into (a man named "Big John" played by the indomitable Brian Cox), and when the Big John confronted Gary, Gary told him that it was Howie who took the pistols. Thus Big John sets off to recover his property. Howie retrieves one pistol from Gary's house, but that isn't enough for Big John who tries to seduce Howie. All of this is going on as Howie's father, who has been having non-stop sex with his new girlfriend, is under incitement for a fire in a building in which he had contracted the construction. Howie's father makes a desperate attempt to reach out to his son, as he sees him struggling in school, but is soon arrested. <
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>What follows is a story of love and lust, confused and mistaken sexual identity, revenge, and of course - growing up. Howie's relationship with Big John deepens from one of Big John's lust to Howie's view of Big John as a patriarch in his life, to Howie's lust for someone to love him like his mother did. Though not by any means a heterosexual film, this is not really a "gay film" either. It's not really about pedophiles either, its really just a story of a boy coming to terms with how his life has changed and who he has Become. This is a story with true heart. <
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>Caveat: Definitely go for the unrated version, it was originally (an inappropriately) initially rated NC-17, for mildly obvious reasons, there's no real nudity or sexual activity between minor and minors (or minor and adults, for that matter) and the language is no worse than that of other R-rated films like "The Matrix."

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Interesting...
I first picked up a copy to rent. I was first introduced to this movie; only through seeing it on the shelf in the drama section. I have: My Own Private Idaho (Collector's Edition), and have seen other movies in this "genre". Basically it was a natural for me to see this movie. I find the fact that they focus more on being ambiguous with the sexuality aspect...kind of refreshing. I did watch this movie w/ an assumption of how it would end up; however, it was a curve ball. Then again that's what you want a movie to do. You actually want twists and turns. The intelligence of "Howie" is believable, and his acting was very good w/ such a complex character he had to play considering his age. I agree w/ the director when he says that (in the director's commentary); eventhough, this kid was the 8th to come in, and he had hundreds more to see, that he knew immediately; that he should play the character of "Howie". I will have to make sure I watch the original NC-17 version as well. The ending of this movie is a powerful lesson. I appreciate "pushing the envelope" in a movie. This a very good movie. I'm not just saying that, because I used to live in Long Island when I was <
>little. (SMILE)

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Should be required viewing for ALL adolescent males
L.I.E. is a hard hitting and factual story detailing the lives of a HUGE number of adolescent males who seek bonding with their peers and older males often because of something lacking in their personal lives. <
>The story is true to life with Big John being the father" figure to Howie YET also setting the lad up for seduction in his own good time. <
>Boys of today are lacking male GUIDANCE in their lives and those who DO have some semblance of it, often have negative results because many older males put way to much pressure on the youth with all their MACHO bulls***!! Many lads in the 12-17 years old range have NO idea what it is to be a man because their so called mentors are as warped as they are. <
>L.I.E. is a fine work, a true and hard hitting piece of cinema that should be seen by the world at large.