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This Boy's Life
Based on on the memoirs of writer and literature professor Tobias Wolff, the movie follows Toby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a rebellious 50s teenager, who plans an escape as his stepfather believes violence is the best way to discipline him.
27 June 1975, Santa Monica, California, USA
1972, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
25 June 1970, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
25 June 1951, Canton, Ohio, USA
27 November 1949, New York City, New York, USA
May 20, 2003
This Boy's Life is so steeped in period detail (music, cars, television shows, hair styles) that Toby and Caroline's sad, bumbling search for freedom seems secondary, almost impolite to the decor.
February 08, 2010
Something more subtle is going on in Wolff's book, a confrontation with a richer, quirkier past and his emerging self that the movie too often brushes aside.
February 08, 2010
De Niro and Birkin are reliable in this atmospheric drama, but it's DiCaprio who really shines.
June 03, 2008
Nicely acted but excessively bland.
February 08, 2010
A young DiCaprio steals the show in this tale of learning how to be a man, with a sly De Niro also giving a good performance, but with a plot that drags on too long.
May 12, 2001
An indisputably great actor is inching toward the black hole of self-parody.
December 31, 2006
A powerful if familiar family melodrama with a bravura performance from newcomer Leonardo DiCaprio, who's bound to become a major actor in the future.
June 24, 2006
It's a rites-of-passage drama with the kind of period small-town setting that the director is making his own.
June 21, 2005
Well acted, but bleak and slow-moving.
May 05, 2013
The film demands ominous electricity between Dwight and Toby, the latter of whom endures various and sundry humiliation and harm at the former's hands. And there are times when DiCaprio doesn't just go toe-to-toe with De Niro but feels just as tall.
February 08, 2010
The leads work overtime to make their characters and their relationships pungent, believable, and moving.
