Boyhood: The Gritty Version

You want "Boyhood"? Here are two alternatives -- one doc, one feature -- that feel more like it:

RICH HILL (B+) - The face of adolescent poverty, three boys from middle school and high school in small-town Missouri put their sparse, troubled existences on display in this haunting documentary from journeyman producer/director Tracy Droz Tragos and actor Andrew Droz Palermo. It is an unblinking examination of the hopelessness found in rural America.

Andrew is the most well-adjusted of the trio of boys, despite dealing with a depressed, drugged mother -- he does have a tight nuclear family (two parents and a sister), he plays football and he takes comfort in the eventual salvation from God.  The other two -- Harley and Appachey (pronounced like the tribe) -- have been traumatized early in their lives and are now acting out in low-grade rebellion.

Harley likes to play with knives, and he seems perpetually on the verge of an outburst. A chilling scene with his school principal reveals a pent-up rage and a near-daily penchant for feigning sickness and demanding that his grandmother come pick him up. Harley's mom, a toothless mess, is in prison, apparently because she threatened or assaulted Harley's step-father, who sexually abused the boy.

Appachey, the youngest of the trio, is surrounded by a tribe of underfoot siblings who are bopped and bullied by an angry mother. Appachey's father walked off years ago without explanation, and the boy smokes expertly and bums around Rich Hill looking for excuses to perform mildly delinquent acts. He eventually faces time in a juvenile facility and must scramble to salvage his middle-school career.

We worry about these boys. We feel guilty about having the creature comforts they lack. We also might feel guilty about having visceral reactions to their stereotypical situations -- rural setting, missing or abusive parents, learning disabilities, unhealthy nutrition and vices, the dumb hubris of male adolescence.

But the filmmakers show no bias, make no judgments. They train their cameras on some gritty, chilling images. It's a tough story. Boys will be boys. Capitalism will be capitalism. A happy ending is a long shot.

EMPTY HOURS (B) -A quiet 17-year-old, Sebastian, fills in for his uncle as caretaker of a rundown no-tell motel in Veracruz, Mexico.

This is a sweet, laconic film, and mop-topped Kristyan Ferrer is quite likeable and effective as our hero. There's not a lot of action here, and usually that's not a problem. Here, though, writer/director Aaron Fernandez Lesur struggles to makes this low-key mood piece resonate.

As days become weeks and the uncle's absence drags on, Sebastian gets the hang of the operation. He befriends Miranda (Adriana Paz), a real estate agent and the mistress of an unreliable married man. She spends the downtime waiting for her beau getting to know Sebastian. How close will they get? Will this turn into an R-rated after-school special?

Lesur has a fine eye for the small, quiet scenes and the lazy pace of such a life. But his story is thin, and you might not have the patience for all 101 minutes of this sharply observed movie.