WARNING: This article contains spoilers and references to abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

“The Altar Boys” is a Polish movie that had its theatrical run in November. The film stars several child actors as Altar Boys who bug a confessional booth and take justice into their own hands.

The main group consists of Filip Grabowski (Tobiasz Wajda), a boy who’s neglected at home by his depressed, alcoholic mother (Kamila Urzędowska); Gustaw (Bruno Błach-Baar), Filip’s best friend whose family is moving out of Poland in the near future; and Chicken (Mikołaj Juszczyk) and Little Chicken (Filip Juszczyk), who are also in the movie.

The boys overhear a conspiracy by a bishop from the curia (Tomasz Schuchardt) to steal money from collection boxes that are supposed to go to the poor. They decide to steal the stolen money from the parish’s safe and distribute it to those in need. They figure the best way to find those people is to bug the confessional with a hidden camera.

Eventually Filip decides that giving money to the poor isn’t enough, and he gets the rest of the boys to help him punish sinners. This sounds like it’ll be cool vigilante action, but in practice it’s just like calling the cops on a drunk driver and framing some lady for shoplifting.

Honestly this was the part of the film I found the most disappointing. It was the basis for the film’s synopsis, but it just ends up being pretty underwhelming. After one of these excursions goes wrong, all the boys but FIlip decide to quit.

Throughout the movie, Filip has had a crush on this girl, Dominika (Daria Kalinchuk) who’s being abused by her father (Artur Paczesny). Filip wants to do everything in his power to take him out, so he hatches a scheme that would cause the father to beat him in public with people watching.

I believe the reason Filip is so dedicated to trying to help and change people is because his attempts at helping his mother always fall completely flat. He’ll show her job listings and she’ll ignore them, he’ll dump out her booze but she just buys more, etc.

The plan ultimately succeeds, but at a great cost as Filip is brutally beaten and hospitalized. It’s a nice ending as Filip’s mother finally says she loves him and the boys stay friends.

“The Altar Boys” is well shot, edited and acted, but it lacks anything that’ll really stick in your mind. It’s a decent movie, but nothing more than that.

Currently it can’t be watched in the U.S. through official means, but if you have a VPN it’s on Polish Prime Video.