A review by Brooks Rich
Little Men is a film from 2016 that is directed by Ira Sachs. It is not the showiest film in the world. It is small, quiet. It is a film that looks at the lives of two families and the grudge between the adults that divides them. Little Men fits into one of my favorite subgenres in film – films told from the point of view of children that show the bullshit that adults create and how kids are forced to deal with both the adults and the bullshit. Films like Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labryinth, Francois Truffaut's 400 Blows, and Yasujiro Ozu's Good Morning, which writer/director Ira Sachs took inspiration from for Little Men, all feature children trying to live in a world run by adults who are borderline incompetent or sometimes even cruel.
Greg Kinnear, probably the most well-known of the main cast, save for Alfred Molina in a smaller role, plays Brian Jardine. Jardine is a struggling actor who, with his wife and thirteen-year-old son Jake, move into a Brooklyn apartment where his recently-deceased father used to live. The apartment has a tenant living in the basement – a dressmaker and her thirteen-year-old son. The two boys become fast friends. However, their friendship is soon threatened by an argument about rent between Jake's parents and Tony's mother.
This film is real. It almost feels like it could be a play, which usually I don't love in film, but here it works. The situation feels real and the characters feel authentic. The two boys are the most likeable of the characters – especially Jake, played by Theo Taplitz, a young actor who displays a quiet stoicism beyond his years. On the flip side is Michael Barbieri as Tony, who wants to be an actor when he grows up and who is channeling both Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Jake and Tony are the two characters to like here. But their friendship is threatened by the grudge held between the parents.
In any other film I would say the adult characters are maybe at fault. They’re so unlikeable sometimes it makes watching almost uncomfortable. But, like I said, Little Men feels real. Adults get angry and hold grudges when there's money involved. It makes sense, but we feel bad because it effects Jake and Tony's relationship. Sachs’ influence from Ozu's Good Morning really plays into the film at about the halfway mark when Jake and Tony take a vow of silence until their parents apologize.
The film is currently on Netflix. If you have a taste for quiet films, I highly recommend this. Sometimes we need to go away from the extravagant giant Hollywood pictures and focus on a small film meditating on life.
Little Men is a film from 2016 that is directed by Ira Sachs. It is not the showiest film in the world. It is small, quiet. It is a film that looks at the lives of two families and the grudge between the adults that divides them. Little Men fits into one of my favorite subgenres in film – films told from the point of view of children that show the bullshit that adults create and how kids are forced to deal with both the adults and the bullshit. Films like Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labryinth, Francois Truffaut's 400 Blows, and Yasujiro Ozu's Good Morning, which writer/director Ira Sachs took inspiration from for Little Men, all feature children trying to live in a world run by adults who are borderline incompetent or sometimes even cruel.
Greg Kinnear, probably the most well-known of the main cast, save for Alfred Molina in a smaller role, plays Brian Jardine. Jardine is a struggling actor who, with his wife and thirteen-year-old son Jake, move into a Brooklyn apartment where his recently-deceased father used to live. The apartment has a tenant living in the basement – a dressmaker and her thirteen-year-old son. The two boys become fast friends. However, their friendship is soon threatened by an argument about rent between Jake's parents and Tony's mother.
This film is real. It almost feels like it could be a play, which usually I don't love in film, but here it works. The situation feels real and the characters feel authentic. The two boys are the most likeable of the characters – especially Jake, played by Theo Taplitz, a young actor who displays a quiet stoicism beyond his years. On the flip side is Michael Barbieri as Tony, who wants to be an actor when he grows up and who is channeling both Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Jake and Tony are the two characters to like here. But their friendship is threatened by the grudge held between the parents.
In any other film I would say the adult characters are maybe at fault. They’re so unlikeable sometimes it makes watching almost uncomfortable. But, like I said, Little Men feels real. Adults get angry and hold grudges when there's money involved. It makes sense, but we feel bad because it effects Jake and Tony's relationship. Sachs’ influence from Ozu's Good Morning really plays into the film at about the halfway mark when Jake and Tony take a vow of silence until their parents apologize.
The film is currently on Netflix. If you have a taste for quiet films, I highly recommend this. Sometimes we need to go away from the extravagant giant Hollywood pictures and focus on a small film meditating on life.
Comments
Post a Comment