Fresh and Exciting

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

A lot of fun.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

"Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is very similar to "Stand By Me," with the nice addition of a non-stereotyped girl and a stereotyped nun (played by producer Jodie Foster) in the mix. Young love is shown the sweetest I've seen in a long time (oy, I'm still apologizing to a certain boy in my head when he was so sweet to me at that age and I didn't know how to handle it; oh well, I didn't have a script based on a book to follow.) Emile Hirsch and Jena Malone are marvelous, especially with the very serious sides of their lives, though the lousy parenting is only vaguely shown with shouting. While the gambits of their crew are a bit unbelievable as they try to put fantasy into their real lives, their fantasy comic life through Todd McFarlane animation is a lot of fun (I was a fan of McFarlane's HBO series "Spawn.") I've never seen a super-hero with such sensitive eyes! (originally written 6/23/2002)

I thought this film was marvelous. Beautiful portrait of growing up. However, given all the priest and altar boy scandals these days, I think the title leads people to believe it's on a different subject. I kept watching to see if the priest was going to make a pass at Francis or Tim. In response to one of the alleged goofs, I think the bus said "Immaculate Conception" because St. Agatha's School and Immaculate Conception share activity buses. The schools don't have outside activities on the same day. Notice they said "Activity Bus" and not "School Bus." Meaning they aren't used for home-to-school transportation but only for school-to-field-trip transportation.

In the Seventies, the fifteen years old troublemaker and leader altar boy Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin) and his three great friends, Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch), Wade Scalisi (Jake Richardson) and Joey Anderson (Tyler Long), study in a repressive Catholic school, and they hate their nun-teacher Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster). Francis has a crush on Margie Flynn (Jena Malone), who has a dramatic secret in her life. They like to write a comic book called 'The Atomic Trinity' and all of them have an alter-ego in their superheroes: Brakken (Francis), The Muscle/Skeleton Boy later (Tim), Captain Asskicker (Wade) and Major Screw (Joey), with Sorcerella (Margie) joining them later. Francis uses to fantasize reality with the fantastic situations the heroes face against the evil Nunzilla/Pegleg, a dark caricature of Sister Assumpta. The group plots an evil prank against Sister Assumpta, with tragic consequences."The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is a surprisingly great original coming to age movie, one of the best I have ever seen in my life. The group of friends recalled me 1986 "Stand by Me" or part of 1981 "Four Friends" and the dramatic situation recalled somehow 1999 "The Virgin Suicides". The screenplay, alternating animation with film, is great: the boys escape and fantasize reality through their alter egos. The performance of the young cast is also excellent. Jodie Foster, as the severe teacher, and Vincent D'Onofrio, as Father Casey, magnificently complete this wonderful cast. I could never imagine Jodie Foster in such role. I highly recommend this great movie, much unknown here in Brazil. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Meninos de Deus" ("Boys of God")

This film haunted my head more than any other I saw in the year of its release. It is an emotionally realistic depiction of adolescence (however unlikely some elements of the plot might be) and a disturbing critique of Catholicism (in particular) and authority (in general). Kudos especially to Jena Malone for her performance, which was disquietingly honest. Jodie Foster and Vincent D'Onofrio don't have much screen time, but their performances are memorable (especially his, I thought). The one major flaw of the film is that the animated sequences are rendered in a style that is anachronistically too modern, in a film that otherwise does an excellent job of recreating its historical period. I grew-up during this time period, and the film aroused vivid memories for me (I wouldn't exactly call it nostalgia, because not all of the memories were pleasant). If you see this film and enjoy it, you might also want to have a look at "The Ice Storm" (another fine period study) and "Heaven Help Us" (for more Catholic-school angst).