L.I.E. features quietly electrifying performances from newcomer Paul Franklin Dano and criminally underrated veteran Brian Cox (best known on the big screen as the original Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter), as a neglected teenager and his paedophile acquaintance respectively.

Fifteen-year-old Howie derives no support from the inept parenting of his widower father and instead seeks solace and companionship firstly with a group of delinquent burglar friends and subsequently with the former marine Big John, whose complex makeup--part father-figure, part Fagin, part Svengali, part abuser--leads Howie into an ambivalent relationship in which there are no easy answers or straightforward notions of right and wrong. The premise of the movie is thrown into sharp relief by the cosy New Jersey setting, all neatly-manicured lawns and cool interiors. Indeed, the most striking images in the film are the burglary scenes, in which Howie's furtive, awkward presence in the sterile blandness of his victims' uncluttered homes forms a double-edged metaphor for both the security and the anodyne mediocrity of the society from which he feels so alienated. --Roger Thomas

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression in La Bambaas the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez (Zoot Suit) creates a nimble, exciting, and sympathetic portrait of the boy driven to rise above obstacles of race and family legacy, and Esai Morales is equally fine as Ritchie's envious, searching brother. Great support from Elizabeth Pena and Danielle von Zerneck as Valens's sister and mother, respectively, and Joe Pantoliano is solid as the singer's straight-talking manager. Valdez brightens up the third act with a rock & roll show featuring, among others, Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochrane. Marshall Crenshaw turns up as Buddy Holly getting on that plane with Valens, and Los Lobos (who actually performs Valens's music on the soundtrack) has a nifty cameo as a Tijuana band that gives Valens a piece of crucial inspiration. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com