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Review

Based on the autobiography of writer Tobias Wolff, this intensely moving coming-of-age drama is a courageous tale examining the hopes and desperation of an unsettled youth. In a passionate performance, DiCaprio plays a troubled teen who, with his newly married mother (the first-rate Barkin), moves to a small town in Washington state to live with his new stepfather (De Niro in a volatile performance). But what had promised to be a fresh start -- an emotional rebirth for mother and son -- quickly degenerates into an oppressive and claustrophobic lifestyle neither is able to protest or divorce. Jonah Blechman gives an astonishing performance as Arthur, a gay teen -- a rustic Oscar Wilde trapped in a world of uncivility and ignorance who is both flamboyant and quietly determined. A fine portrait of a gay teen.