BOY A

British cinema at its gritty best; tough-minded, compassionate and intensely personal, Boy A dramatizes the ferocious tensions that surround the concept of criminal rehabilitation. As a young man who has grown up in detention after committing murder as a child, actor Andrew Garfield galvanises Boy A with a performance of James Dean-like yearning and raw sensuality. Setting out at 25 to begin rehabilitated life, he faces myriad challenges in relating to the world through an assumed identity. He craves the one thing his proud case worker (Peter Mullan, superb as always) warns him he can never have: total acceptance. As he falls in love with the brash Michelle, his desire for honesty becomes more and more unnerving. There’s complex understanding here that society’s reluctance to forgive is only the first obstacle to beginning life afresh. “A small, huge film about the harsh realities of rehabilitation, and the shimmering possibility of redemption.” — Joe Morgenstern, Wall St Journal