Movies
Heaven Help Us
St. Basil's Catholic Parochial School for Boys, Brooklyn, 1965. The photography is so aggressively unattractive, with that fluorescent abrasiveness in which Miroslav Ondricek specializes, that you might almost think the movie took itself seriously. Perish the thought. Every character is one insistent note, strident if not downright sour: fat bespectacled egghead, curled-lipped tough guy, maniacally grinning masturbator, etc. The lank-haired waitress (Mary Stuart Masterson) at the students' after-school hangout at least looks interesting, until you get to know her. And the "progressive" priest played by John Heard, the most "brotherly" of the Brothers, is potentially interesting, too, but not merely as the good-guy alternative to the sadistic, inquisitorial English teacher. With Andrew McCarthy, Kevin Dillon, Malcolm Danare, and Donald Sutherland; directed by Michael Dinner. 1985.
— Duncan Shepherd
Reader Rating:
- MPAA Rating: R
