Runaways

1981 / NR / 103 min

Sixteen-year-old, Steve Moore, lives with his younger sister, his mother, Cheryl, and her boyfriend, John, in a modest house in Bakersfield, California. An abusive and often intoxicated man, John rules the household. Although his attacks on Steve result in emergency hospital visits, Cheryl's loyalty is to her boyfriend rather than her son. To protect her relationship with John, she has Steve arrested and locked in a correctional facility, before coercing her older brother Burt, who lives in Hollywood, to take him. Steve quickly discovers that Burt cannot even provide temporary lodging, but an administrator at his new high school directs him to a shelter for runaway kids where he soon learns to navigate his way through the harsh reality of the streets.