Adapted from a play by of same name, History Boys is a seemingly harmless movie that features a group of posturing, young men in school uniforms, laid over a beaming union jack background. Each one casts an empty fashion model glare at the camera complacent in their stereotypical roles: The good looking, cynical one; the bonehead sports player; the awkward yet talented little one; the token black British guy; and the jolly fat one.<br /><br />History Boys presents its story with a superficial, pop-fashion twist to make it feel fun and hip, while the movie yacks relentless, philosophical babble over the heads of any real human's comprehension. The movie employs this disingenuous tactic to appease the audience who vainly confuse thought-provoking dialog with the inane drivel meant to confuse the subjective viewer into thinking they are in the presence of genius. This pseudo- intellectual smoke screen is provided to keep the simple minds busy while the story veers into the dark territory that houses the story's genuine issue. History Boys opens up its overcoat and presents crude flashes of the repressed libido and perversion of mature men, and the tragically mislead minds of attention-starved teenage boys.<br /><br />It is just this glancing over of much heavier issues that should catch any coherent viewer by surprise and beg for further exploration. Yet, History Boys opts instead to treat its pedophiliac tendencies like an 800 pound gorilla in the classroom. A teacher repeatedly fondles his students' genitals on a motorcycle, while another teacher is crassly offered to be "sucked-off" by their student, and accepts. All these minor details are presented as human nature and even defended slightly in the film. Meanwhile, the viewer is intentionally directed to chuckle off these felony offenses as boys being boys, and men being men who simply love to touch boys.<br /><br />History Boys' misleading and dishonest story has apparently worked wonders on a half- conscious, world-wide audience, so easily impressed by the movies and so unwilling to be disappointed by the theater. Light and fluffy on the outside, the movie is thoroughly demented on the inside - written by a perverted old man and acted out by a group of fame- obsessed boys who wouldn't dare question the material they're given. Coincidentally, the real people behind the movie seem to share the same background and fate of the characters they're playing.<br /><br />NAMBLA sympathizers will have found their "To Sir, With Love".