This movie isn't too bad. It's one of those movies that tries to shock the average viewer with its casual approach towards taboo subjects (one of the characters is a kid who brags and jokes about actually having intercourse with his sister, which is so calculated to offend that it just seems dumb), kind of in the vein of "Kids" but a bit more plot-oriented. What saves it from being just some annoying look-at-me-I'm-scary-and-gross independent film is Brian Cox as Big John, who elicits just about every emotion possible from the viewer. I've said "viewer" twice already in this little write-up, and I'm very annoyed. Viewer viewer viewer-riffic! Viewer! So Brian Cox is great; in an early scene with Howie, the protagonist, he confronts him in the front seat of a car, and it's beyond uncomfortable. You have no idea what the guy is going to do, and that's a pretty rare attribute for most movie characters. Overall the acting is good, quite good really. The kids in it aren't annoying even when they're given potentially annoying things to say and do, and there's a lot of good little moments. The ending is not the best, but not bad enough to ruin the entire movie. I guess this was NC-17 just for the overall theme, because the language is pretty standard for your basic R-rated movie, and the pedophile stuff, apart from some graphic talk, isn't thrown in your face or anything. Not bad.
Review of L.I.E.
