The Golden Age of Comic Books began back in the '30s and ended with the adoption of the Comics Code in 1954, but one could argue that a veritable comics renaissance is taking place this very second.  Spider-Man will soon become the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all-time, and the trailer for Hulk is leaving fans salivating for its release next summer, along with Daredevil.  Last year, a novel about comic books (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) won the Pulitzer, and a film based on a very thin graphic novel (Ghost World) was nominated by Oscar for its screenplay adaptation.  And that's to say nothing of the critically acclaimed blockbusters that feature protagonists who want to become comic-book artists (Freddy Got Fingered, Tomcats and Monkeybone).  Okay, maybe I went too far with that one.

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys isn't based on a comic book, but they do factor pretty heavily into its script.  It's a lot like The Virgin Suicides, only with about 20 minutes of superhero animation thrown into the dreamlike mix.  Like that film, Boys is set in the mid '70s and is about Catholic school students in that dorky period between childhood and adulthood, and it's told in a similar fashion, as well - almost like an adult struggling to piece together their own hazy details of what they did just before high school set in.

These eighth-graders aren't too much different from the kids in Suicides, either.  The ringleader and brains of the outfit is Tim Sullivan (Kieran Culkin, The Cider House Rules), though the heart (and our protagonist) is Francis Doyle (Emile Hirsch, who could easily pass for a younger version of Road Rules' Theo).  In addition to smoking, drinking and messing around, the four friends have begun to create their own comic book, in part to pass the time, but also to help release some of the aggression they feel toward their evil, moped-riding, one-legged teacher, Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster, whose now-defunct Egg Pictures produced the film).

Each of the boys has their own uniquely named and gifted character in the book (called The Atomic Trinity, even though there are four of them), which pits their alter-egos against the cartoon version of Sister Assumpta (or Nunzilla) and her fictional bunch of biker henchpeople.  These animated segments, which fit surprisingly well into the film, were created by Thomas Fleming and Todd McFarlane, the latter of whom directed Spawn and cut his teeth as an artist for The Amazing Spider-Man back in the late '80s.

But there's more here than just comics.  Francis has a crush on his formerly suicidal and potentially crazy classmate Margie Flynn (Life As a House's Jena Malone, who played a young Jodie Foster in Contact), and he wins her affections with the Cyrano-style aid of both Tim and poet William Blake (far more helpful than Robert Blake).  Their relationship, which becomes incorporated into the nun-killing fantasy, is awkward and surreal, and though it's sweet, it comes across just as unsentimental and non-sugar-coated as the rest of the film.  We also witness the slow unraveling of Tim (picture the wide-eyed innocence of Tobey Maguire fused with the rebelliousness of Jackie Earle Haley), whose innocent pranks begin to evolve into something scary and dangerous.

Boys is finally being released after a couple of well-publicized film festival flaps (Foster pulled it out of Sundance '01 because the animation wasn't ready, then the film was bitch-slapped out of Cannes last year after Foster reneged on accepting the presidency of that festival's jury when she jumped at the chance to replace the injured Nicole Kidman in Panic Room), but its post-Spider-Man timing really couldn't be better.  It's based on the popular novel of the same name by Chris Fuhrman, who died before his book was published, and is adapted here by Jeff Stockwell and The Queen of the Damned's Michael Petroni.

In addition to the wonderful performances by the kids, the real star here is Peter Care, who until now was best known for making music videos with R.E.M. and Depeche Mode.  Boys is an incredibly thoughtful and deliberately paced film from a music-video director you might assume would attempt to glitz things up with various visual bells and whistles (like, say, Behind Enemy Lines).

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for language, sexual content and youth substance use