Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62402 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-29
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
The pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jim Carroll, the poet and musician who spent much of his adolescence addicted to heroin and shooting hoops with fellow Catholic high school kids. As a biography, the film doesn't amount to more than the sum of its gritty scenes of smack use, violence, perversions (poor Bruno Kirby plays a lecherous coach who comes on to young Jim), and the usual scream-and-puke dramas that go along with a cold-turkey session. Director Scott Kalvert doesn't seem to realize that most people don't know who Carroll is and therefore can't possibly understand why they should care about his gutterball youth. DiCaprio, having nowhere to go with his performance but maintain Carroll's tailspin, is boring and redundant. Some kind of allusion to the literary and rock & roll life that follows the mess we're watching might have been helpful. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a high-school-age Jim Carroll, a New York kid who wears a dirty grin, scoffs at his teachers, reduces his mother (Lorraine Bracco) to tears, and hangs out with a bunch of friends, looking for trouble; when they can't find it, they make it. Early on, the picture offers some fine, flowing scenes of the gang tearing down the street with all the zip and glee of Truffaut kids, and loping and shoving, angular and energetic, across the basketball court. But when Jim discovers heroin-and the film finds a sense of responsibility-the freedom disappears: the latter half becomes a gruelling catalogue of cold nights, blue lips, and scummy needles. DiCaprio gives it everything he's got, but the picture doesn't ask him for much; it isn't interested in his good humor, let alone his good looks. Directed by Scott Kalvert, scripted by Bryan Goluboff, and based on Carroll's own chronicle of his wasted youth, it's all too pleased with itself for getting down into the gutter. The final sequence makes it plain that because Carroll now writes poetry he is cured, and redeemed. That's what he thinks, anyway. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Hardhitting Film Based on a True Life Story
Director Scott Kalvert creates a moving and realistic recount of the true story of Jim Carroll, played superbly by Leonardo DiCaprio, a New York City teen who at the height of his high school basketball career, falls victim to drugs and violence in the rough streets.

Look for the real-life Jim Carroll who makes a cameo appearance as a crack addict in the scene where young Jim sitting in a back alley listening to the addict preach about his "high" while boiling his fix.

Fine supporting performances by the entire cast and a musical score including original songs performed by Jim Carroll's band. Especially memorable is the acid-rock message song: "These Are All the People Who've Died" which is a tribute to Jim's fallen friends throughout his life.

The serious messages in this film SCREAM out at teens, but also are sombering to adults who realize the sometimes hopeless devastation that wracks a family during a drug crisis. Your heart breaks for Jim's mom and his mentor, an African American ex-druggie who cleaned up and wants nothing more than to help Jim out of his living hell before it consumes him.

Tragic, intense, and frightfully scary..
This movie was gripping from the start to finish. I loved how it opened- a bunch of kids who obviously have minds of their own- getting high off of some household cleaner or something, skipping school, ripping off hot dog carts.. and you think this all seems crazy but then ultimately all the hard core drug usage starts and while at first it may seem like nothing but a small enjoyable thing to do- it soon is a huge habit for Jim.

Watching all the struggles Jim has to go through- loosing friends, trying to be clean & then failing, prostitution, begging for money, getting into physical fights.. - it is hard to watch and you physically can't believe that someone can go through so much and come out victorious in the end.

Leonardo plays this role FANTASTICALLY. Especially the part when he is crying at the door begging for some money from his mother. The amount of passion he pours into this character is huge... for that reason alone- go see this movie.

An emotional, disturbing portrayl of drugs and teens
I must admit this movie really had a huge effect on me. After watching this, I thought to myself, "How could anyone do drugs like this?" The look of this film matches the tone of it, which is a dark, gritty feel of the streets of Brooklyn during the 1960's.

This movie basically takes a real life teenager and throws him down the wrong paths in life. You can really see Leonardo DiCaprio's character grow more and more addicted to all these drugs. Physically, you can see his body become worse and worse as he becomes more plugged into the drug culture as nights go by.

I have a whole new appreciation for Leo DiCaprio. He was only 20 years old when this was made and you can tell, this young kid can act like a pro.

This film as a very indy-film look to it which seems to add to its realism unlike if it were a major Hollywood motion picture. So, if you want to see an emotional, tearjerking view of innocence crumbling into nothing, this one will suck you in.