Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The

Aroview: A quietly sobering, yet refreshingly humorous memoir of hormonal and delinquent adolescence under the arches of a strict Catholic high school, with Jodie Foster as a zero-tolerance nun who confiscates a lewd comic book made by four incorrigible teen boys.

Periodically animating the boys’ cartoon exploits, dir. Care wisely counterpoints any comic aspects in the film with some genuinely touching, sometimes heartbreaking insights into the otherwise well worn coming-of-age routine. Emily Hirsch and Kieran Culkin perform maturely, while Foster as the film’s “villain” plays unusually against type.

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