A young kid grows up in a tough blue-collar '70s town at odds with his bruising dad. It sounds familiar, but though a beer-gutted Val Kilmer takes on the pot-bellied Alec Baldwin role as the raffish father, actor Frank Whaley's debut is a long way from the Farrelly brothers' Outside Providence. Devoid of humor and sentiment, relentless and conventional, it's a tale of numbing injustice and suffering that finally finds its heart when it's almost too late.

The 400 blows fall fast and furiously on 14-year-old Joe (Noah Fleiss) from Whaley's high-profile cast of characters. Humiliated by a teacher (Camryn Manheim) in class, misled by the ex-con (John Leguizamo) at the bar where he works, ignored by his guidance councilor (Ethan Hawke), Joe falls into a life of crime only after his drunken father smashes the Johnny Ray record collection of his mother (Karen Young). Stressful and stark, Joe the King evokes a teenage wasteland without relief, redemption, or much point. Screens at the Copley Place Saturday, September 18 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. and Sunday, September 19 at 2:15 and 4:45 p.m. Director Frank Whaley will be present at tonight's 7:30 showing.