Truth in L.I.E.
A uncomfortable, but brilliant film.

By Jaime Sneider
October 6-8, 2001

he controversial and independently released L.I.E. — named after the Long Island Expressway — is not only one of the year's best movies, but brilliant in its own right. Director Michael Cuesta seduces the audience with his directing, bringing a morbid sense of the perverse within the grasp of understanding. The most original movie depicting suburban life in recent memory, L.I.E. shatters the mold for teen strife movies and accomplishes something extraordinary.

The film begins with 15-year-old Howie Blitzer walking atop a guardrail of an L.I.E. overpass. Narrating, he says: "There are lanes going east, lanes going west, and lanes going straight to hell." This gifted adolescent, on the verge of suicide, must come to terms with his mother's death in a car accident on the infamous highway.

The complications, however, only begin here. His father is inconsiderate and negligent of his son, acquiring a girlfriend within weeks of the incident. Moreover, Howie becomes aware of his homosexual tendencies, yet must keep them secret from his seemingly intolerant friends rather than risk expulsion from his only remaining refuge, their companionship.

Isolated and alone, this troubled youth is an ideal target for the movie's other main character, an ex-Marine and pederast. Middle-aged Big John tracks Howie down after searching for the teens responsible for burglarizing his home. Once it becomes clear, however, that Howie is not some average child-thief, John offers his friendship and guidance in place of preying sexually on this troubled soul. Big John begins to assume the role that Howie's unloving father has left vacant.

The kids in the film are unabashed exhibitionists. Rarely wearing shirts, and frequently only underwear, these boys are hardly modest in groups or alone. These scenes transform the audience into voyeurs, providing us glimpses of Howie when he is most vulnerable. Captured in moments of total innocence, Howie peacefully sleeping-even when wrestling, engaging in robbery, or smoking a cigarette, his behavior may more appropriately be classified as innocently mischief than deviant, more reminiscent of Tom Sawyer than a juvenile delinquent.

Cuesta wants to make the audience understand how this child becomes an object of desire for John. At the same time, however, L.I.E. is by no means excusing of pedophilia. When Big John's male companion berates John, telling him that he should feel ashamed for even considering exploiting this sexually confused teenager, he replies, "I am. I always have been."

This movie is not comfortable to watch, and isn't intended to be. This boy's existential angst is displayed on screen for your amusement, your entertainment-we treat his plight as a means to our own ends, exploiting the character in the process. Like John, we are meant to feel ashamed for bearing witness to these private and very intimate moments of a child coming of age. It is in this way that the director succeeds in making you empathize.

Cuesta is not making a political statement about homosexuality. Early on in the movie, Howie is shown staring blankly into a bathroom mirror, his watery eyes just shy of overflowing with tears. A million other teenagers, without regard to their sexual orientation, are also staring, asking themselves the very same question that perplexes Howie: Who am I? Homosexuality is a mere device, and an effective one, for representing the extreme alienation teenagers routinely feel.

And with the exception of one scene in which Big John explains the difficulty in defining his sexual orientation, social norms are not questioned. Of course, a real life Big John would probably articulate similar beliefs, so this indictment hardly comprises an editorial from the filmmakers.

To be sure, this movie is not without flaws. The resolution between Howie and his father unfolds much more smoothly than Big John's cinematic fate. The latter might have worked had the script been crafted in a slightly different manner, though as it stands seems dubiously tacked on.

This film will launch the careers of some very exceptional talent. Cuesta succeeds by every conceivable measure, and Paul Franklin Dano, as Howie, delivers a powerful performance with soft-spoken delivery and understated assertiveness. Few actors possess his restraint and grace.

In an age when movies are predominately viewed as a means of escape, L.I.E. is a powerful reminder of the film medium's potential. Cuesta bestows upon the audience a role within the film itself, thereby forcing them to feel the same emotions as the characters on screen. Exceptional in every regard, L.I.E. is truly a heartfelt masterpiece.

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