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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
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66
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48
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56
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Beaches of Agnes, The
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Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
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Brothers Bloom, The
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Easy Virtue
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Examined Life
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Gigantic
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Girl from Monaco, The
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Rudo y Cursi
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Seraphine
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Song of Sparrows, The
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What Goes Up
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Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Borstal Boy
Strand Releasing
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Shawn Hatosy,
Danny Dyer,
Michael York,
Lee Ingleby,
Robin Laing,
Mark Huberman,
and
Eva Birthistle
An Irish film based on the memoirs of noted author and raconteur Brendan Behan. (Strand Releasing)
| GENRE(S): |
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Nye Heron
Peter Sheridan
Brendan Behan (book)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Peter Sheridan
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 15, 2002
Video: October 15, 2002
Theatrical: March 1, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
91 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Ireland / UK |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
But if the film flirts with being sentimental, it never completely gives in: The inherent strength of the material as well as the integrity of the filmmakers gives this coming-of-age story restraint as well as warmth.

70
LA Weekly
John Patterson
Overall Sheridan keeps both "Oirishry" and sentimentality in check. He captures the book's evenhanded sense.

70
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
Forces a self-examination that is both traumantic and revealing.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
A likable rites-of-passage memory piece doused in period nostalgia, including the prominent use of vintage Movietone newsreels to mark the events of World War II.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Shows an unusual degree of generosity toward all its characters, and its tenderness yields some affecting moments, even if they don't ring entirely true.

63
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
An important and interesting story, but the reform school itself never seems terribly harsh.

60
New Times (L.A.)
Andy Klein
While the movie tries to make the connection between the rough but sensitive lad we see on screen and the notorious carouser of later years, there's little here to suggest whatever torment led Behan to drunkenness and an absurdly early death at 41.
58
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
Though exploring, among other things, fallibility, homosexuality, injustice and loss, the picture seems afraid to really make any kind of strong statement, whether political or psychological.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A quaint, romanticized rendering.

50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
The film's intimations of bisexual romance have a certain innate drama that no amount of bad acting or cornball rugby matches can completely erase.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's really a crock: a coming-of-age boys' prison film that has only a fanciful link with Behan's life. The film is a bastard grandchild of Tony Richardson's 1962 "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner."

50
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The film moves briskly enough to be entertaining, but it can't escape the smothering hero worship that Sheridan infuses into every frame.
50
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Given the serious subject matter, this adaptation of Irish writer Brendan Behan's autobiographical novel is surprisingly light and exceedingly good-natured.

50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
My problem with Borstal Boy isn't so much with the facts as with the tone.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The result is a film that will probably please people already fascinated by Behan but leave everyone else yawning with admiration.

40
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
For all its triteness, Sheridan's sentimentality has its poignancy: This adolescent boy is all set up to live out a halcyon life he'll never have.

40
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
As drama it feels forced and highly conventional.

38
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Somewhere along the way, Borstal Boy became fatally compromised.

30
Variety
Derek Elley
Mixes a rites-of-passage story with political and sexual elements to solid but finally uninvolving results.

30
Chicago Reader
Ted Shen
The direction is so muted and sentimental and the pacing so soporific that only Ciarian Tanham's saturated color cinematography of the sylvan countryside breaks the monotony.

10
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Sheridan seems terrified of the book's irreverent energy, and scotches most of its élan, humor, bile, and irony. What's left wouldn't have substantiated a memoir of any reputation, much less a movie.


The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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