June 2023

Revenge Served Cold: Sleepers

This article originally appeared in AC, Oct. 1996. Sleepers, an autobiographical novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra, created a firestorm of controversy when it was published last year. And now, a cinematic version of the story — so powerful that it may tempt some viewers to avert their eyes — has emerged to fan the flames even higher. Directed by Barry Levinson for Warner Bros., it was primarily photographed on the streets of New York City by Michael Ballhaus, ASC, BVK. Sleepers is told in three acts spanning two decades. Act One tells of four altar boys from the tenements of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, who are sent to an upstate reform school after a prank escalates into a near-fatal accident. The "home for boys" inmates are referred to as...more