The Butcher Boy

(Warner)

Neil Jordan's adaptation of a feverish novel by Patrick McCabe is set is provincial Ireland in the early '60s, where 12-year-old Francie Brady (exuberant newcomer Eamonn Owens) finds that his alcoholic Da (dogged Jordan regular Stephen Rea) and whimsically suicidal Ma (a fragile Aisling O'Sullivan) are the least of his problems. Balancing horror and hilarity, Jordan re-creates the world of the adolescent imagination gone berserk. With Milo O'Shea as a pederastic priest and Sinéad O'Connor in a cameo as the Blessed Virgin.