Howie Blitzer (Paul Dano) is haunted by the death of his mother. His father is a jerk with a trophy girlfriend and questionable contractor business under investigation for causing a fire. He hangs out with other juvenile delinquents doing break-and-enters. His friend Gary Terrio has a sexual attraction to him. He doesn't know that Gary prostitutes himself. They break into Big John Harrigan (Brian Cox)'s home and steal his guns. Pedophile Harrigan knows Gary very well. When Harrigan confronts Gary, Gary gives up Howie.This movie is extremely creepy. There is a predatory feel from Gary and especially Brian Cox. Paul Dano was so young back then. He has the look of a victim waiting for his attacker. This movie is deeply disturbing and uncomfortable to watch.

Big John is a 50 something ex US marine who lives with Scott, a youth of about 18 in a smart suburban villa somewhere in Oregon. He holds parties for middle aged folk at home and is nagged by his aged mum to look after his health. He was in love with girl when he was young but never married citing the reason that all women are 'maneaters'. Although Scott has his own room they sometimes sleep together and in his private moments Big John looks at internet pictures of young teen-aged boys.Big John isn't strictly a pedophile as no prepubescent children are involved in his life but he certainly appears to be a pederast. He cruises the local pick up zone where teen-aged male prostitutes ply their trade offering blow jobs behind a road sign for a few bucks. And there he meets 16 year old Gary, a good looking local tearaway and hustler who also burgles houses with his school mates for extra cash.Gary isn't necessarily gay but he uses his looks and charm to best advantage. Accordingly he is the object of adoration by 15 year old Howard, a gay school mate, who dreams of running off with Gary to a romantic life together in California.But their plans and dreams must change when they decide to rob Big John of his prized antique revolvers - and the ex marine quickly discovers their guilt.The subsequent drama is beautifully intense without being heavy. And most of all it raises essential questions about the true nature of pederasts and the boys they befriend. Who is exploiting who? Who is the real victim of this sadly common circumstance? Are pederasts always evil? What exactly are the real motives of Big John, Gary, Scott and Howard? And who is the villain? The film ends very suddenly with an emotional shock. And it is our personal feelings towards the characters after that shock which seems to be the whole point of the movie. Well recommended for all - and particularly for parents of teen-aged boys with crushes on other boys.

Firstly, as much as this movie is being praised for the less simplistic portrayal of a relationship between an adult and a child than we usually get in the national discourse, there's a definitely creepy underlying message along the lines of the NAMBLA ideology that this "pederasty" as it's known is serving some sentimental need of both participants - the ending to the film leaves Howie essentially a 3-time orphan, and as such we are supposed to feel his relationship with "Big John" (eugh) was more one of support than of abuse.This idea is pushed upon us at other points, such as the man's rejection of the child on the bed, and a line about Howie needing a father figure (in case we couldn't read between the lines ourselves) but I just found the whole notion of Cuesta trying to make the audience question the self-righteousness of paedophile-bashing pretty nauseating - these 'relationships' are child abuse, and from initial blackmail to driving back to the rest stop at the film's (flimsy) ending this man is clearly not changed by the Walt Whitman-quoting benevolent influence of Howie as is suggested. Rather he corrupts the alienated suburban teen and his death leaves the poor kid with one more kick to the bracesThis weird moralising undercurrent basically ruined the second half of the film for me, as well as the occasional tasteless monster-clichés that I guess the director felt were necessary to balance the pro-paedophilia stance of the rest of the movie - one scene has the abuser explaining he's "always ashamed" but that's all that is verbalised and as such the sentimentality feels very phony.ANYWAY I wanted to add that the first half of the film actually really impressed me, the Larry Clark-style diner sequence and general hoodrat bravado, the boredom of a big empty house, slow scenes of his life being given the time to become realistic, it was all going so well but then the plot started to lose its way, and the whole stupid non-romance shifted into fast-forward and Brian Cox kept pulling this bemused face to show he had depth while Howie said something profound-but- essentially-out-of-character (flicking between bright-spark-with-love- of-poetry//confused-and-bewildered-victim).Although not a bad piece of film-making on the whole, this doesn't deserve a second viewing and I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, and I'm even thinking now that this is a film destined to preach to the ephebophile choir in the disturbing way the internet serves to already. Go watch Mysterious Skin instead

Fifteen-year-old Paul Franklin Dano (as Howard "Howie" Blitzer) lives in a cool suburban house, in a nice community near New York's "L.I.E." (Long Island Expressway). He's recently lost his mother to an Expressway crash, and doesn't seem to be dealing with the loss well. Neither is distant father Bruce Altman (as Marty), in trouble with the law for white-collar crimes. Young Mr. Dano is attracted to sexy Billy Kay (as Gary Terrio), but Mr. Kay is reluctant to start a relationship with his inexperienced pal.Instead, Dano joins Kay in house burglaries, with incestuous James Costa (as Kevin Cole) and hetero stud Tony Michael Donnelly (as Brian). One of the homes they hit belongs to boy-trolling ex-Marine Brian Cox (as "Big John" Harrigan). Apparently, Mr. Cox is having trouble maintaining interest in aging boy-toy Walter Masterson (as Scotty). After Kay books for California alone, and Dano's father is arrested, he finds not only the sexual stimulation missing from Kay, but also a father figure, with the older Cox.Due to the subject matter, this was obviously a controversial film. It contains what they call "strong language," but nothing offensive is explicitly shown. It's a tribute to director Michael Cuesta that such a fuss seems to have been made - at one point, the film was labeled NC-17 - because, Mr. Cuesta tells the story with implicit effectiveness. Editing and cross-cutting are used well. Cuesta and his cast deservedly won awards for their work. Still, nobody's perfect, and only an idiot would visibly trick behind that sign."Welcome to Long Island" Dano begins the "L.I.E." story by saying, "You got the lanes going east, you got the lanes going west. You also got the lanes going straight to hell." The ending, with Mr. Masterson, is an old story, but unexpectedly uplifting in this context (only).******** L.I.E. (1/20/01) Michael Cuesta ~ Paul Dano, Brian Cox, Billy Kay, Walter Masterson