L.I.E. (2001)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Quite a conventional film, this. It'll probably date quite quickly as screenplays move towards more culturally-mature discussions of sexual matters. I agree with the commentator who said "We need more films like this," - in places the characterisation is very comic-book; the father, especially. Nevertheless, Brian Cox is superb, and is quite the most complex portrayal of that type of character.At several points, though, I have issues. The counsellor gets far too irritated far too easily. If you've a problem kid, you don't stop them doing what they need to do to distract themselves, you read their unspoken thoughts and give them time while you work out the right question. She should have known that scolding wouldn't work with this kid. If this was the point, they should have developed the character of the counsellor, and shown that she was a product of a system that couldn't do anything but fail Howie. Having said that, we don't condemn 'Dambusters' simply because the dog is called 'Nigger.' These are notes for a future film.The kid himself is still too passive, too unable to think for himself at relevant places. I have tutored kids in this age range, and they have the intelligence to put two and two together vis-a-vis their father being arrested. Not to mention the weak way in which Howie's father's assault is dealt with. It gives the idea that all homosexual teenagers are pacifists whose only response to parental violence is to feel victimised, curl up in a ball and cry. If the kid is breaking and entering, and his father assaults him, he's unlikely simply to dissolve into tears and then give his father a rather strange hug. Which might be a good point, but unless it's developed more than it is in this film, we'll never be able to tell it from directorial sloppiness. This is a shame, because here was a chance to really call time on casually-violent fathers. The characterisation of Howie's dad smacks of committee thinking, "Well, is this kid's father gonna be an abuser or isn't he?" and the scene where his dinner partner has a heart attack just... missed the boat completely.Furthermore, the film doesn't seem to know how it wants to end. The shock of Howie being about to kill himself is utterly dulled by over-repetition of the bridge scene, and that Big John is going to get killed by his partner is telegraphed and spun out way too long. And, not to sound too Kermodish about it, but Howie's poetry *isn't that good,* and his commentary right at the end seems ponderous and unsatisfactory.Having said that, this film is worth watching for Brian Cox alone. Plus the fact that it is experimental, and, as Dr Frankenstein found out, experiments are never perfect. I'd love to give this a 9, but it's like the first University essay - you haven't quite developed the knack, the style; you're tentative in places, irrelevant in others. On the other hand, I was going to give it an 8, but Brian Cox is simply not to be missed. So 9 it is.

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 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). Big John finds Howie and at first sees him as another teenager that he can fool around with. However, upon meeting Howie, he realizes that Howie doesn't needs a father figure more than he needs a sexual partner.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. However, even that single flaw doesn't make me love the film any less. This is one of those films that is so honest, so pitch-perfect in the people it is depicting, so fearless in what it's willing to show, that, to me, it is almost required viewing.This film really spoke to me. I can really relate to it 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. I had experienced the loss of people I loved as well, and I dealt with those bad feelings for a while. 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 great character. Despite his problems, he still is a good writer and he still appreciates art and the things that matter to him. 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's one of the best films of the 21st century.

L.I.E THE BEST MOVIE EVER. Hey I'm Joel from Toronto Ontario Canada I'm 18 and i was whouldring if any one know's Howie's E-mail because i want to Congratulat him on a really good movie it really reached me he is just like me and one day hopefully i can get a hold of him i seen the movie in 2001 and now it's 2007 it's really been a long time but the movie is still in my mind so if any one can help me out and get my e-mail to Howie that would be greatly aperhated THANK U SO MUCH CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT THE Movie MY E-MAIL IS [email protected] plz send me back a messege thank u so much thanks agine bye for now.

Michael Cuesta's debut film, L.I.E. is impressive in many ways, none of them having anything to do with a cinematic value as much as the willingness to shock the audience with a story that seems lifted from the pages of a collection of gay erotica. (Not that this is a bad thing.) It tells the story of a teenager, Howie (Paul Dano), and his elliptical path which takes -- or lets say, wrenches -- him away from the pretend security of his own home after his father (Bruce Altman) is discovered to be involved in shady business and plants him squarely in the path of John "Big John" Harrigan (Brian Cox), an ex-marine who has a penchant for young boys and who holds a position of almost revered admiration from everyone in the Long Island town where he lives. The two of them have met before, several times as a matter of fact, the first time being in a less-than-welcome way: Howie's blind attraction to a kid his own age, Gary (Billy Kay), who holds a dangerous reputation as being a little too solicitous with other men (indeed, early in the movie Howie's father lets him know he doesn't like Gary because "he smiles too much") leads to an incident where Gary steals two of Big John's prized guns. Big John, wanting to recover the guns (and probably knowing Gary has them) puts Howie in the delicate position of having to retrieve them from Gary at the same time Gary, no one's friend, breaks into Howie's house and steals his father's stashed money. With Gary gone and his home in a moral shambles, Howie becomes the protégée of sorts to Big John who expresses an uneasy attraction not based in sex (while politely asking his latest boy-toy (Walter Masterson) to stay a couple of nights in the nearest motel -- what a nice guy!). Interesting to note that Howie is the one who tries on several occasions to seduce Big John, one time resolving to quote a passage from Walt Whitman. It's not a bad film -- Brian Cox does manage to give his character a belated sense of sympathy -- but somehow, the story feels too open-ended, much like the motif of the Long Island Expressway that goes from East to West and could land Howie anywhere within the state of New York. However, it is daring and filmed without an exploitative hand and because of this, L.I.E. is better than its material and the times we live in would ultimately let it be.