L.I.E. (film)

Movie Facts

Year Released:	2001
MPAA Rating (USA):	NC-17
Director:	Michael Cuesta
Starring:	Paul Franklin Dano Billy Kay Brian Cox

L.I.E. is a 2001 independent film about Howie played by Paul Franklin Dano, a 15-year-old boy and his friendship with a street hustler named Gary played by Billy Kay .The title is an acronym for the Long Island Expressway. The film was written by renouned author and poet Stephen Ryder and directed by Michael Cuesta. Also featuring Brian Cox as Big John.

Plot

Howie (Paul Franklin Dano) is a 15-year-old who has been drifting ever death of his mother in an auto accident several years before. Howie's father Marty (Bruce Altman) is also having trouble dealing with the loss, and has becone distant and self-involved. Howie's group of friends are lead by the streetwise Gary (Billy Kay). They pass their time engaging in high risk behavior such as breaking and entering. Howie is drawn to Gary and wonders if his feelings for him go beyond simple friendship. Gary persuades Howie to join him in robbing the home of Big John but they are caught in the act and narrowly escape , takinging away with them several guns from Big John's prized collection. It doesn't take long for Big John to track down Howie and Gary. Howie learns that Big John and Gary have a secret. The have met before.

-- Gary sometimes works as a male prostitute, and Big John, whose tastes run to boys in their early teens, is a regular customer. When Gary runs away to California, Big John proposes that Howie work off their debt by having sex with him; while Howie is hardly comfortable with this arrangement, he has nowhere else to go after his father ends up in jail, and he finds an unexpected degree of emotional support in his relationship with the curiously compassionate pedophile, who comes to understand just how badly Howie needs help. L.I.E.