This Boy's Life (1993)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Dwight	Robert De Niro	½
Caroline	Ellen Barkin
Toby	Leonardo DiCaprio	½
Arthur Gayle	Jonah Blechman
Pearl	Eliza Dushku	½
Roy	Chris Cooper	½
Chuck Bolger	Tobey Maguire	½

Review

Based on writer Tobias Wolff's memoirs published in 1989, this film helmed by British director Michael Caton-Jones (Memphis Belle) gives a harrowing and nuanced look at what it was like to grow up for arguably millions of boys in the western hemisphere during the 20th century, under the crippled guidance of abusive fathers and stepfathers who took out their lack of achievement and misconceived ideals of a dwindling macho-culture on their own sons and stepsons. Wolff's story is brilliantly adapted for the screen by Robert Getchell, who had proven his talent for writing about small-town life before with Alice Doesn't Life Here Anymore. The film offers warmth and poignancy in equal doses, where scenes of bonding, comradery and the promise of youth are interspersed with scenes of violence and oppression by an essentially self-loathing parent. This Boy's Life is a wonderful film in almost every way, but it wouldn't have been as effective and emotionally draining/rewarding had it not been for young Leonardo DiCaprio's brilliant performance and his interplay with Robert De Niro's nuanced role as the stepfather. They are accompanied by fine work from Ellen Barkin as Wolff's mother.