The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

Plot synopsis:
Set in the early 1970s in a suburban town in the Southern United States, the film follows the lives of protagonist Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch), and three of his friends, Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin), Wade Scalisi (Jake Richardson), and Joey Anderson (Tyler Long). The four boys all attend a private Catholic school named St. Agatha's, which they detest. The boys rebel by smoking pot, drinking, obsess over girls, listening to hard rock music, and playing pranks on their teachers, such as stealing their school's statue of St. Agatha and keeping it in their clubhouse. The four friends dedicate much of their time to a comic book of their own creation titled The Atomic Trinity in order to escape the monotony and avoid the difficulties in their own lives.
After receiving a love note from Francis, which was actually written by Tim, Margie Flynn (Jena Malone) becomes a major character in the film and weaves her way into the lives of these four friends. She and Francis have an obvious connection that progresses into much more. At times, Francis must choose between his friends and Margie, which causes the group of friends to fall apart. The boys' lives are also translated into segments of animation based on the characters of The Atomic Trinity: Brakken, The Muscle, Captain Asskicker, and Major Screw; Nunzilla, based on their peglegged, overly repressive Catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster); and Sorcerella, based on Margie Flynn.
After a school field trip to the zoo, Tim and Francis have the idea of playing another prank on Sister Assumpta. They decide to drug the cougar at the local zoo and then transport it to Sister Assumpta's office to scare her. When they learn how serious Tim and Francis are, the other half of the Atomic Trinity wimp out, which leaves an unlikely group of friends consisting of Margie, Tim, and Francis. Francis soon learns that Margie had been sexually assaulted by her own brother. During gym class, Donny (Arthur Bridges), Margie's older brother, bullies Tim during class. Tim, out of pressure and his own impulsive nature, insults Donny for molesting his own sister. He regrets telling Donny, and then tells Francis who becomes angry with him. Donny takes Tim and Francis's comic, The Atomic Trinity and gives it to the nun. The violent, blasphemous and inappropriate drawings in the notebook cause Tim and Francis to be suspended, pending expulsion from the school.
In an act of final retribution, Tim, Francis, Wade, and Joey attempt to steal a cougar to place inside the school to cover up a wrecking of the school they did that night. At the zoo, a makeshift tranquilizer created from several narcotic drugs is used to put the cougar to sleep. The other three boys go down to the gate to retrieve the cougar in a cage, while Tim impulsively climbs over the fence into the cougar's den. He checks to see if the cougar is alive, and happily replies that it is. When the other boys reach the gate to retrieve the cougar, another cougar leaps at Tim, mauling him to death. At Tim's funeral, Francis quotes the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, whom Sister Assumpta earlier condemned as a "dangerous thinker". Francis places the book at the stolen statue of St. Agatha in their hideout, and starts a new comic series dedicated entirely to the character based on Tim, Skeleton Boy.

Tags: revenge, cruelty, romantic, prank

Review:
'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' is actually a great coming-of-age tale set in the Catholic school setting of the 1970s.
or their interpretation of it.The two boys in 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' are Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch - The Girl Next Door, The Emperor's Club) and Michael Sullivan (Kieran Culkin - Igby Goes Down, Home Alone).
The film contains some funny moments, and as the story unfolds Francis (Hirsch) becomes interested in the girl who lives next door to him Margie (Jena Malone - Saved!, Cold Mountain), a cool, nice, beautiful and independent girl with a deep and dark secret that challenges Francis.
Culkin gave an equally amazing performance in Burr Steer's neurotic and darkly hilarious film debut 'Igby Goes Down' which was released the same year as 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys'.
The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys is kind of like a cross between The Virgin Suicides and Stand By Me. Set in the 70's (featuring many cool 70's haircuts) in small town Georgia, the story focuses on Francis, a 14-year-old dreamer and troublemaker.
Group of Catholic schoolboys in the mid-1970s are obsessed with comic books, girls, and wreaking havoc on their most hated teacher, Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster, in a nun's habit, somewhat uneasily cast but still quite good).
"Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is very similar to "Stand By Me," with  the nice addition of a non-stereotyped girl and a stereotyped nun  (played by producer Jodie Foster) in the mix.
Young love is shown the sweetest I've seen in a long time (oy, I'm  still apologizing to a certain boy in my head when he was so sweet to  me at that age and I didn't know how to handle it; oh well, I didn't  have a script based on a book to follow.)  Emile Hirsch and Jena Malone are marvelous, especially with the very  serious sides of their lives, though the lousy parenting is only  vaguely shown with shouting.
THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS (2002) *** Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch, Jena Malone, Jodie Foster, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Richards, Tyler Long.
Funny and poignant coming of age story centering on two Catholic school adolescents (Culkin and Hirsch both superb) whose penchant for juvenile acts of defiance is only underscored by their innate desire to fit in and be loved while pitted against their arch nemesis, their teacher Sister Assumpta (a dourly cheeky Foster, who also produced the project), a one-legged harridan from Hell.
"The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is one of the best books I've read in awhile, so I was pretty stoked to see how it translated to film.
The story revolves around Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch) and Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin, who's very good), altar boys with a comic-book fixation and a resentment of authority (represented here by Jodie Foster's peg-legged Mother Superior); also on hand is Francis' love interest, Margie (Jena Malone), who reveals herself to be a complicated, tragic figure.As far as revisiting adolescence is concerned, "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is accurate, funny, and even sad.
'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys', directed by Peter Case, is a coming of age story about two boys, Francis (Emile Hirsch) Tim (Kieran Culkin) who supplement their boredom at Catholic school and their home lives by playing pranks and working on their own comic book.
'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' has been praised for its creativity and the mixed genres, (the film turns into a Todd McFarlane produced form of anime at times) but even these moments were just plain boring.
Jodie Foster, as always, is wonderful in the film, but despite the fact that she is supposedly the evil nemesis, she has an aggregate screen time of perhaps ten minutes, so there wasn't enough of her to truly enjoy.Generally, films that deal with topics such as incest, ghosts, and untamed youth are at least thought-provoking, but 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' didn't provoke anything in me but boredom.
The movie doesn't try to stay out of the argument, mind you, it just seems very confused as to what it thinks.The animated sequences, meant to illustrate the lead character's emotional thinking, are the best element of the film.
Bottom line, read the book, or rent this movie in a few months (if you can find it) only to admire Jena Malone and the fairly interesting animation from that guy who did "Spawn." The character interaction was horrible, the story was muddled and unrealistic, and what was an amazing novel is now a pointless movie...I've been wanting to make a film out of this book for years, and now its been done and destroyed.
I couldn't quite reconcile seeing her in a nun's wimple, and playing a stereotypical "bad nun."  On the other hand, the casting of Emile Hirsch as Francis, Kieran Culkin as his best friend Tim, and the unrecognizable Vincent D'Onofrio as Father Casey was brilliant.
Religion, School and Pranks gone Bad. This film, set in the religious environment many adults grew up with tells the story of four boys, who's personal lives become intertwined with their fertile imaginations.
Well now we have a film that tends to capture some of the child's mind qualities of "stand by me" mixed creatively with some creative cinematic and an interesting plot line.The story follows four friends going to a catholic school and getting together causing trouble drawing comics and otherwise being boys.
`The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' is NOT, as you might expect, a film about predatory priests, but rather a slice-of-life tale about four malcontent Catholic schoolboys who spend most of their free time devising preposterously elaborate and life-threatening practical jokes to play on the faculty members of their school.As a coming-of-age drama, the film is fairly conventional in its plotting - i.e. young boys, in their rebellion against the uncomprehending adult world, experiment with drugs, first love, sex and general rule breaking - although there is a tricky and touchy incest-related subplot that is handled with a certain amount of delicacy and sensitivity.
The highlight of the movie is the outstanding performances delivered by youngsters Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin and Jena Malone, whom you might remember as the young Jodie Foster in `Contact.'  In fact, Foster herself appears in this film (in addition to co-producing it) as the uptight nun, Sister Assumpta.
Unfortunately, her character is probably the least well developed one in the film, a fact that seems more obvious than it otherwise might if an actress of Foster's caliber were not playing the part.The film also displays a nice feeling for its early-70's setting and does a good job capturing the way young people actually speak and communicate (the cast members have their nonverbal expressions and gestures down beautifully as well).
Working from the novel by Chris Fuhrman, screenwriters Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni, along with director Peter Care, interrupt the live action at regular intervals to provide animated sequences that are ostensibly derived from the anarchic superhero comic book on which the gifted boys are collaborating.
We know that these sequences are intended to provide a kind of fantasy alternate universe for these troubled kids who seem to find no meaning in the restricted world of religion and rules in which they find themselves, but the fact is that these sections of the film, not very creative in themselves, merely serve to thrust us out of the story at crucial moments.`The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' is an odd and somewhat misleading title for this film, since most of the `danger' these boys face is, primarily, a product of their own stupidity and not of their religious upbringing.
`The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' is an uneven film, but the superb performances by its youthful cast members make it ultimately worth seeing..
Somewhat brash and completely unapologetic, Altar Boys delves the minds of 14-year-old boys in all their hormonal and conflicted glory; from the imaginary alter-lives they lead in the collusive effort of creating comic book heroes to Frances's first love testing the bounds of their friendship in ways both startling and completely expected, to an riotously-14-year-old-inspired plot to kill the nun they so detest - played with great reserve, yet to great effect by Jodie Foster - by loosing a cougar into her office, it's no-holds-barred and (at least I expect) dead-to-rights in depicting the indefatigability of boys' imagination and penchant for mischief.I am all about the characters and these were interesting and charming and exasperating; silly and rotten and exhilarating.
I love how they put the cartoon bits in at exactly the right time and still let the movie run smoothly.It's a very tragic portrayal of 4 young boys', but mostly focusing on Francis and Tim, journey in growing up, and learning some of life's hard lessons.If you liked this movie, I strongly recommend reading the book.
The two main characters, Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch) and Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin) really capture the realism of going through the changes that happen around the era of 13-16 years of age.
it's kind of funny how things happen, though, because the first time i attempted to watch this movie the dvd broke right when they were stealing the statue, and up until that point it had been really funny, so when i went to watch it again i figured it would be a really funny movie, but right after the statue part it starts getting serious, and also really good.the acting is solid all the way around, but kieran culkin is the best actor of the bunch.
THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS is the latest in a long tradition of coming-of-age stories, and a pretty good one at that.
Francis discovers about life, death, love, and pain, and all these revelations surprise the audience just as much as they surprise Francis.Live action in the movie is interposed with the comic book adventures of Brakken and the Muscle, the superheroes who are Francis and his friend Tim's alter egos.
It's a wonderful addition, adding a physical journey to Francis's confusing emotional journey.All in all, a very competent film, made more so by wonderful performances from Kieran Culkin, Jena Malone, and Emile Hirsch..
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a darkly comic, touching coming-of-age story that could have turned into by-the-book teenage drivel, but is rescued by the performances of Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch and Jena Malone and some very cool animation by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane..
I'm not Catholic nor a teen, but I found this movie very interesting and entertaining.The interaction between all the kids was pretty real and the dialog did not seem juvenile.Although not normally a fan of animation, that portion worked OK in this movie because it was the outward expression of the kids' imagination.Of the 7 primary actors, Jodie Foster had the weakest character as "nunzilla".
Perhaps it was just the nature of the character.Vincent D'Onofrio was entertaining as the smoking, swearing priest (and apparently in the book he was a womanizer, too.)The 4 boys were all pretty good, but Jena Malone probably had the toughest role as the girl with a secret, and she was very good.The whole cougar plot-point was a bit much, and the dog scene came from nowhere, but the rest was very satisfying.The extras on the DVD were good, too.P.S. Originally I could not get this DVD to play in "widescreen" as it was advertised from Amazon.
This is a great and wonderful film and i think that everyone should see it.I really related to it.I went to a catholic school like the boys in the film and are the same age as they would be now.I dealed with drinking and girls just like the boys did.The film will bring back old memories and remind you how hard it was being 14.It's a great film with comedy and drama.It really shows whats going on inside their heads.I also recommend reading the book its even better.
Hollywood, and the public in general, loves a good coming of age story (or a bad one, for that matter), and so film makers produce a score of them each year.
The only problem is that Hollywood has developed a formula for such movies, with the result that they have become increasingly cliched."The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is the least cliched coming of age story I've ever seen.
As much as I loved this movie and related to the characters, I never felt the obligatory twinge of nostalgia for the "good old days" that so many movies of this genre try to evoke."The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" is one of the best films I've seen in a long time.
But the real stars of "Altar Boys", Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch, and Jena Malone produce outstanding portrayals of American teenagers.
This movie is one of my favourites.It is filled with emotion,love and the lives of four teenage boys, who try to find their way through a comic book.This movie completely indicates teenage-love and what is going through a normal average teenage boy, through girls,drugs,revenge on their nun-teacher, and yes even life it's self.This movie will open you up into a whole new way showing two boys trust and friendship for one another.If I could understand how their gut feeling was,there's no doubt in my mind you won't either..
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a wonderful movie different from all others, and that is why I liked it so much.
Culkin and newcomer Emile Hirsch carry the film ably as Tim and Francis, a pair of trouble-making Catholic School boys who spend their days dreaming about women, mischeif and comic books.
It's a solid performance, though he fails to make any real connection with the audience, most likely due to the fact that Tim is quite simply not an easy character to embrace.The most subtle and understated performance in the film is turned in by Jodie Foster, who though she lacks enough screen time to adequately develop her character nevertheless manages to succinctly reveal exactly who she is and what she's about.
i just watched this movie last night and i must say it's one of the best indie-style films that i've seen all year...the acting was amazing, as one has come to expect from all of jena malone's films...the plot was light enough to give you a laugh and dark enough to make you cry...the dangerous lives of altar boys dives into many issues including puberty and catholicism...a must see for any indie buff....
'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys' follows the adventures of a group of fourteen-year-old boys that express their rebellion against their Catholic school upbringing by drawing comics and plotting exotic vengeance against their nemesis - Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster, also a co-producer).
The focus is on instigator and plotter Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin), whose family life is so dysfunctional it's given attention in morning prayers in class; and dreamer and storyteller Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch), who is the heart and soul of the piece and the creator of the Atomic Trinity - the comic-book alter egos of the boys.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, the film, is about four 14-year-old boys (two main ones, two friends) and their comic-book altar egos (illustrated by Todd McFarlane and intertwined into the story) coping with life, love and adolescence in the wake of the 70s and Catholic School.
Tim Sullivan (Keiran Culkin), Francis's best friend, attempts to totally escape reality by engaging in a series of childish pranks geared towards p***ing-off their teacher, Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster), a one-legged nun (the other is prosthetic) who is actually trying to help the boys, but it seen as a cruel authority figure.
I think the Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a great movie, the best I've seen so far this year.
Despite veering wildly away from the novel, the film does a great job of transposing moments of boredom-inspired adolescent lunacy with aching transcendence (the scene in which Francis, the protagonist, akwardly talks to his dream girl Margie for the first time made MY heart flutter, and I haven't been 14 for a while!)Still, I wished that the scriptwriters had stuck closer to the book in some respects, especially detailing Francis' home life, which would have given greater insight into WHY he uses his drawing as an escape(and he has a heavy-duty reason to escape).
Despite veering wildly away from the novel, the film does a great job of transposing moments of boredom-inspired adolescent lunacy with aching transcendence (the scene in which Francis, the protagonist, akwardly talks to his dream girl Margie for the first time made MY heart flutter, and I haven't been 14 for a while!)Still, I wished that the scriptwriters had stuck closer to the book in some respects, especially detailing Francis' home life, which would have given greater insight into WHY he uses his drawing as an escape(and he has a heavy-duty reason to escape).
This movie has a lot of elements seen in other works about coming of age, such as "Stand by Me" and "Dead Poet's Society." The young actors are engaging and well-directed, and Jodie Foster puts in a great supporting role as a comically desperate nun trying to keep them in line.
To wrap it all up, it was a great movie for anyone who remembers life at 14, it was a new and exciting concept mixing McFarlane cartoons into "the dangerous lives" of these 4 "altar boys"..
A group of adolescent boys attending a Catholic school get into trouble through their various shenanigans, and they imagine themselves as superheros fighting a group of evil nuns on motorcycles (superb animated sequences by Todd McFarlane run parallel to the live action film).
Let the coming of age movie begin.Francis and his friends have one problem Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster, Panic Room).
Kierian Culkin does a wonderful job.Heartbreaking, and actually pretty funny at times, THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS is indeed one of the best films I have seen all year.