The title is a woozy irony: The three high-school boys portrayed in the documentary “Rich Hill” will never be rich, though this gently heartbreaking film certainly is.

Portraying these three working-class kids from Rich Hill, Mo., filmmakers Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos don’t attempt to steer you to any particular conclusion.

They seek only to observe the misery-stained lives of the struggling poor in the town where they grew up. We watch how physical disorder (garbage-strewn yards, bedrooms that appear arranged by cyclone) reflects inner turmoil, how cruelty rolls downhill (from parent to child to younger child), how bad choices breed.

“I never had any dreams or hopes,” says one too-young mother.

Another is in prison for trying to kill her husband, whom she says raped their son. A boy who says he seeks God figures God is busy with other people.

Frustrating, at times agonizing, the film is nonetheless dappled with a sad beauty. It’s one of the best documentaries of the year.