Born in the mold of such sociological documentaries as Michael Apted's
Up series and Stefan Jarl's
Sociala Arvet, acclaimed nonfiction filmmaker David Sutherland's six-hour PBS documentary Country Boys follows the lives of two Appalachian boys, Chris Johnson and Cody Perkins, over a three-year span, as they come of age in rural eastern Kentucky between 1999 (when both were 15) to 2002 (when both were 18). With the two boys growing up in severely dysfunctional environments -- Perkins' father murdered his mother; Johnson's father is an alcoholic, his mother struggling to cope financially -- and both burdened with severe learning disabilities, Sutherland pulls his audience inside of each boy's life and reveals the hopes, disappointments, frustrations, and successes of his subjects as the young men broach college age. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide