CHILDHOOD’S END

Forget Hollywood depictions of young people and their 90210 dilemmas. Startling in its candor, bracing in its intelligence, CHILDHOOD'S END conjures characters you'll feel you've known all their lives. Greg is a self-assured photography prodigy in Minneapolis who celebrates landing a sweet magazine job right after graduation by confessing his infatuation to the girl next door – more accurately, the woman next door, the magisterially sensual Evelyn, who's old enough to be his mother. She consents to the relationship, for reasons that are something more than lust, somewhat less than love. Greg's seeming success catalyzes neighborhood wallflower Rebecca to try to break free of her own drab, hombound existence. Befriended by Evelyn's rejected daughter Denise, Rebecca realizes the key to her own independence and sexuality. There are no simplistic villians, victims, or judgments, and the undraped performances can only be described as courageous, in a bittersweet drama on the leading edge of American independent cinema. – Charles Cassady