Adapted from Philip Roth's autobiographical novel of the same name, this is an incisive, affecting drama (from Brokeback Mountain producer James Schamus) about the rigidity of academic, religious and philosophical life on a 1950s American campus.

It's 1951 and New Jersey teenager Marcus (Logan Lerman) has enrolled in college to avoid the Korean war and keep in his kosher butcher father's good graces. Now a self-proclaimed atheist, he finds himself at odds with roomates, teachers, and deans alike, and not even his romance with a troubled blonde (Sarah Gadon) can seem to shake him of his cynicism. As war rages on overseas, Marcus fights his own battles, both within himself and against the institutions that threaten to silence him...

A masterful reminder of the power of fighting for your ideals and how youthful idealism is shaped, this is a dedicated drama of ideas definitely worth signing up for.

---