This Boy's Life 1993

Vincent Canby, New York Times: This Boy's Life is so steeped in period detail (music, cars, television shows, hair styles) that Toby and Caroline's sad, bumbling search for freedom seems secondary, almost impolite to the decor. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The leads work overtime to make their characters and their relationships pungent, believable, and moving. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Ultimately, This Boy's Life is effective because we get to know the characters, understand their circumstances, and empathize with their dreams. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is very involving. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Something more subtle is going on in Wolff's book, a confrontation with a richer, quirkier past and his emerging self that the movie too often brushes aside. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: It's a rites-of-passage drama with the kind of period small-town setting that the director is making his own. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Nicely acted but excessively bland. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Apparently left by director Michael Caton-Jones to his own devices, De Niro's familiar, tight-lipped intensity is entertaining and watchable. But in this Boy's Life Magazine context, it hovers close to cartoonlike. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: It is an affecting teen melodrama haunted by twisted treehouse memories. Read more