The United States of Leland

Leland P. Fitzgerald, a withdrawn teenager, is sent to a juvenile detention facility after killing a mentally disabled boy, who was the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. At the facility, Pearl Madison, a teacher, takes an interest in him and encourages him to write about his life, though Pearl has his own reasons for wanting to understand the case. Beyond the detention center, Becky, her sister and others touched by the killing try to cope with what happened.

Matthew Ryan Hoge wrote and directed the film, drawing on his time teaching in a juvenile detention center. It was his first feature as director, and Kevin Spacey, who appears as Leland's father, served among the producers. The cast includes Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone and Lena Olin, with 45 credited cast members and 80 credited crew.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.9 from roughly 25,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a 6.5 from about 344 votes. A film critics' rating of 5.1 from 91 reviews places it below both audience scores. The film runs 108 minutes and was released in May 2003.