Reel Movies: L.I.E.

Director: Micheal Cuesta
Written by: Stephen M. Ryder, Michael Cuesta
Starring: Paul Dano, Brian Cox, Billy Kay, Bruce Altman

 

In the film L.I.E, everything comes crashing down on 15-year-old Howie Blitzer (played by the talented Paul Dano) in one week. Howie's mother has just died in a car crash. His father (Altman), who is too busy with his job and his much younger girlfriend, barely pays any attention to Howie. Without any parental supervision, Howie and his friends go  break into people's house for fun. When Howie and his friend, Gary (Kay), break into "Big John" Harrigan's home, they steal two of his prized guns from when he was in the Marines. Big John (Cox) confronts Howie on this, and Howie find out much more about Big John than he bargained from, like how Big John has a thing for younger boys. Now that he is the target of a pedophile, Howie must find away to solve all of the trouble he has gotten himself into.
 
L.I.E. is very different from any movie I have ever seen before. This movie is creepy and somewhat disturbing, but that doesn't mean it was bad. It is a barrier-breaking film that deals with weird situations dealing with pedophilia and sexuality. It is definitely unusual, but the acting was simply brilliant. Even though this was one of his first movies, Paul Dano gives an outstanding performance as Howie. He makes you really feel all the pain and suffering that his character was going through. Brian Cox was very good in the movie as well. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a movie with an edge that's really unique. I give it a 6/10.

--D.