After exposing his stash of drugs, Jim's religious mother disowns him and exiles a depressed Jim out of their apartment. Jim, Mickey, and Pedro from then on only live for their next score as homeless addicts; one later excursion has them break into a candy shop for money. Mickey finds a gun in the cash register and takes it. Hearing sirens, Jim and Mickey escape, but Pedro, too high and hungover to realize the situation, is left behind and arrested. Jim continues a desperate life of shady dealings and getting high with Mickey, and by the coming winter, passes out in the snow high on heroin. Jim's friend Reggie, who sympathizes with Jim over his predicament having been in a similar situation, finds him, takes him to his apartment, and forces him to detox, but Jim relapses. Back on the street, Jim is desperate for more drugs and resorts to prostituting himself at a public restroom. Later, Jim and Mickey buy heroin, but discover that the dealer ripped them off. Enraged, Mickey corners the dealer on the roof of an apartment building. He accidentally pushes him off the roof to his death. Mickey tries to escape, but is beaten by a gang and then arrested; he is later tried as an adult and convicted. After escaping, with nowhere else to go, Jim returns to his mother’s apartment and she reports him to the police. Jim is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to six months' incarceration at Rikers Island for assault, robbery, resisting arrest, and possession of narcotics. There, he spends the time in jail getting clean. Six months later, Jim approaches a stage door to give a poetry reading. He encounters Pedro, who has been released from reform school. Pedro offers him a bag of drugs, which Jim refuses. Jim later recites his work before an audience and receives applause. Cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Jim Carroll Lorraine Bracco as Mrs. Carroll Marilyn Sokol as Chanting Woman James Madio as Pedro Patrick McGaw as Neutron Mark Wahlberg as Mickey Roy Cooper as Father McNulty Bruno Kirby as Swifty Alexander Chaplin as Bobo Juliette Lewis as Diane Moody Michael Imperioli as Bobby Michael Rapaport as Skinhead Ernie Hudson as Reggie Manny Alfaro as Manny Cynthia Daniel as Winkie Brittany Daniel as Blinkie Jim Carroll as Frankie Pinewater Ben Jorgensen as Tommy Reception On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval