For if adolescence is inherently a time of difficulties, the three boys at the center of “Rich Hill” have more than their share. Harley, who’s 15 and wears a black t-shirt labeled “Horror Movie,” lives with his grandmother since his mom, a waitress, is in prison for assaulting his step-dad (because, the boy says, the man raped him). An avid collector of knives, Harley’s on medication for numerous conditions and constantly seems near a flash point of rage, which partly explains his trouble in school. Yet he also has an irrepressible sense of humor that seems to counteract his anger.

Appachey, 13 years old and also on medication for various disorders, lives in the most disorderly home, a trash-cluttered house where his obese single mother rides herd over a swarm of kids. He recalls, “My dad left when I was six, just walked out.” Bright but troubled and prone to outbursts, he’s obliged to repeat sixth grade and has other problems at school that seem to point toward the juvenile detention system. His hard-nosed mom says she can’t control him and he’ll have to decide to get help himself.

Fourteen-year-old Andrew, meanwhile, differs from the other two boys in notable ways. Strikingly good-looking and sweet-natured (his mother calls him her angel), he has a stable, loving family, takes no meds and seems to like school. But his family’s poverty makes for a highly unstable existence. While his mother’s housebound due to illness, his dad is one of those archetypal luckless dreamers who schemes of making money as a singer, inventor or prospector but meanwhile works odd jobs that don’t end up making ends meet. Unable to pay rent, his family moves and moves again, and late in the film ends up bunking with cousins who themselves are in hard straits.

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