From John Nichols's autobiographical novel about boyhood during World War II -- and clearly an above-average boyhood at that, with a wide streak of morbidity, and a vocabulary that includes "scrutinize," "blatant," "infantile," "castrate," and "gluteus maximus," not to mention "goddamn" and "son of a bitch." Episodic in structure, and not too adept at keeping track of the multiple elements, much less at keeping our interest in them. The re-creation of period receives a lot of T.L.C., but the people never deeply take root there. John Randolph does a good turn, in fact quite the best turn, as a wise old small-town sawbones. With Lukas Haas, Lea Thompson, and Lance Guest; directed by Jenny Bowen. (1988) — Duncan Shepherd
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