The Long Island Expressway, the highway that traverses suburban Long Island with its "lanes moving east, lanes moving west, and lanes that go straight to hell" serves as the central metaphor in this disturbing meditation on coming of age and teenage vulnerability.

Howie Blitzer (Paul Franklin Dano) is a sensitive fifteen-year-old who runs with a rough crowd. The recent death of his mother (in a car accident on exit 52 of the L.I.E.) and his father's indifference to it, have left him floating in a world bubbling over with sex, violence, and danger. When his best friend Gary convinces Howie to burglarize the house of their neighbor, 60-year-old Big John (Brian Cox), the tenuous balance of their teenage existence is entirely thrown off.

To make matters even worse, Howie's father is arrested over a bad business deal. Howie is left dangling, and only Big John seems to care. A harrowing mixture of tenderness and perversion electrifies the father-son relationship that forms between Howie and Big John.

Director Michael Cuesta's touching vision of domestic life in modern-day suburbia is at once humorous and unnerving as it boldly charts one boy's convoluded path through adolescence.

This film screened as part of the 2001 New Directors/New Films series organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.

Reviews:

"...[The film] features a terrific performance by Paul Franklin Dano..." -- Nicole Armour, Film Comment

"...[Cox] gives a knockout performance..." -- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"...Haunting....This remarkable film honors the complexities of an explosive situation, and that's an audacious achievement..."-- Stephen Farber, Movieline's Hollywood Life

"...It's a powerful and provocative achievement from a first-time filmmaker of enormous promise..." -- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"...It sees both of its characters without turning them into caricatures....Brian Cox has been a superb actor in more than 50 movies..." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"...A huge amount rests on Cox's shoulders, and he uncorks his best work in years....The kids, too, are excellent..."-- Matthew Leyland, Total Film

"...Cox's widely praised performance is a marvel of underplaying..." -- Mike Clark, USA Today