(PEDAGOGY) Piss off, Dead Poets Society. The History Boys, about a pack of smart, crass British kids trying to pass the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams, is the new boyhood bildungsroman for the Western Hemisphere. Its writing is funny, its characters are tragic, and its 1980s soundtrack is nostalgic. It is substance versus style, youth versus age, straight versus gay versus curious versus celibate—and every man against himself. (See Movie Times for details.)