Little Men
Description
Jake (Theo Taplitz) is a middle-class middle schooler with artistic ambitions; Tony (Michael Barbieri) is a tough-talking, streetwise teen and the first-generation son of a Chilean seamstress. They’re the last kids you’d expect to be buddies, but after meeting at a funeral for Jake’s grandfather, the landlord of the Brooklyn storefront where Tony’s mom has plied her trade for decades, the two form a surprisingly strong bond. Then Jake’s dad (Greg Kinnear) reluctantly decides that the now-chic neighborhood can’t support a rent-controlled independent business. A war of legal threats and broken promises between both parties ensues. What does this mean for the boys’ friendship? A major talent in American indie filmmaking, Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Love Is Strange) returns with a gentle, elegiac look at the collateral damage of gentrification. There’s no outright politicizing of the subject or attempt to mount a polemical attack; for Sachs, this character study is more about the way human beings with good intentions can make bad choices, and how the social makeup of a community morphs over time, for better or worse. Fueled by a handful of wonderfully understated performances (notably Jennifer Ehle as Jake’s diplomatic mom), Little Men handles its big-statement subject with an abundance of grace and heart. —David Fear
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Yale graduate Ira Sachs first made his name with the 1993 short Lady (a portrait of lesbian writer-performance artist Dominique Dibbell) and the 1996 romance/thriller The Delta (SFIFF 1997). His next full-length feature, Forty Shades of Blue, won the Sundance Grand Prize in 2005. His other movies include Married Life (2007), Keep the Lights On (2012) and Love Is Strange (2014).
Film Details
Language English
Year 2016
Runtime 85
Country USA
Director Ira Sachs
Producer Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Jim Landé, L.A. Teodosio
Writer Mauricio Zacharias, Ira Sachs
Editor Mollie Goldstein, Affonso Gonçalves
Cinematographer Óscar Durán
Music Dickon Hinchliffe
Cast Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina Garcia, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri