The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)

    During the many times I have scrolled endlessly through Prime's video catalog looking for something to watch, I kept coming across this movie. It struck my interest as a low budget early 2000s flick which I've been into and I would leave the movie highlighted for a moment and contemplate, but ultimately decided it wasn't what I was in the mood for. Last night I finally took the plunge (so to say) and while it was not at all what I thought it was, I was pleasantly surprised. 

    

    The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a coming of age film set in the 1970's (funnily enough a fact I did not realize until halfway through the movie because I simply thought the characters had all this old stuff due to them living in some kind of run down small town) that stars Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch, and Jenna Malone. It's actually based off a book of the same name by the late Chris Fuhrman. 

  

   The film centers around Emile Hirsch's character, Francis Doyle, as he manages his relationships with both his best friend, Tim (Kieran Culkin), and his newfound love interest, Margie Flynn (Jenna Malone). All three characters attend Catholic school where the strict and hated Sister Assumpta (played by Jodie Foster) teaches. As a result, the boys' plan and execute several pranks that increase in severity.  Running throughout the film is a comic book the boys are working on, titled "The Atomic Trinity." and there are animated sequences involving the aforementioned Atomic Trinity spliced in that run parallel to the problems in the boys' lives. Sister Assumpta makes an appearance as the villain of the story, accompanied by other evil motorcycle riding nuns. 

    As I already said, the film was not what I thought it would be, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. First off, the acting was pretty decent —it really captured the awkwardness/emotional volatility of being a young teen. Specifically, I wanted to point out Emile Hirsch. While I noticed he did the whole mouth slightly open thing that kind of annoys me in a lot of actors, he really impressed me in a few particular scenes.

     The storyline, while a little scattered and random, was interesting. I don't necessarily think this film even needed a cohesive narrative structure to work. It also deals with some dark topics which Roger Ebert seemed to think it couldn't support, but I have to disagree with him. 

    These topics aren't really supposed to be handled properly or with the weight they should be given because they are being seen through the lens of a young boy. In fact, I think the reactions to these topics from the perspectives of the characters is something the film does well. Reflecting on my own middle school experience, it all seemed very realistic. 

    This being said, it isn't a perfect film. One of my main problems with it would be this one specific storyline about a ghost that kind of goes nowhere and serves no real purpose. There's also some pretty obvious foreshadowing regarding the main climactic event at the end of the movie. I can't decide whether I liked it or not because it was only in retrospect that I realized what these seemingly random scenes and dialogue were trying to do (I guess that's literally the point of foreshadowing but it felt like something I should've probably picked up on). There's one specific scene that didn't really seem to fit with the whole narrative flow that only made sense after I was finished watching. I think that it maybe could have had a better lead in or something.  

    Even with its faults, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a competent coming of age film and is definitely worth a watch. I highly recommend it.