Gypsy

This isn't a film about abstract social ills, it's about specific people in a specific place, and how they get disturbingly comfortable with theft and violence as a way of life.

The movie filmed with nonactors, doesn't try to counteract stereotypes of the Roma people as shiftless, thieving hustlers. But it goes a long way toward explaining the antisocial behavior.

The overall mood of Gypsy is despair.

You might call it an old story with higher stakes, but a keen sensitivity to its moral difficulties and enlivening details sets Gypsy urgently apart.

Best are the film's tender ghostly visitations from Dad, evoked with a minimum of artiness, and the authentic, impoverished locations.

Although Martin Sulik's drama sheds light on typically unseen populations of Eastern Europe, the film, heavy on "Hamlet" allusions, may be overstuffed.

A Slovakian character study of a boy ambivalently caught between worlds that ultimately squanders its promise.