Director: Scott Kalvert
Year Released: 1995
Rating: 0.0
A better title might have been Catholic High School Boys in Trouble. Ugly, ill-tempered, "based-on-a-true-story" debacle (with plenty of inserted material not in the book and several of off-the-wall digressions) about a teenager recovering from drug addiction - and how he turns his pain into poetry - is completely unconvincing on any level and - at times - appalling on every other level (the crimes these thugs commit should have all of them in jail for life). Leonardo DiCaprio is part of the problem - he's too slick and closely preened to be a heroin addict - although director Scott Kalvert's reliance on blinding blue lights and religious iconography also stand out as weak spots. It's essentially an after school special about going from occasional drug use to addiction and suffering, but it's also trying hard to be "cool" (like the dream sequence where DiCaprio shoots his classmates in all black) and popular. Do yourself a favor and read William S. Burroughs' fascinating book Junky instead.
