Heaven Help Us

A sharply observed rites-of-passage comedy set in Brooklyn in 1965. At St Basil's Catholic School for Boys, the pupils find their growing pains made more painful by the ministrations of stern-faced Brethren, who lecture them on the Seventh Deadliest Sin just before a long-awaited junior prom, and patrol the dance floor ready to disentangle any clinches too close for chastity. Sutherland presides in a perm and a cassock over fellow-monks Heard and Shawn, the schoolboy cast give good-natured performances, and Dinner (his first film) brings sensitivity and freshness to a threadbare theme.