Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Little Men (2016) - Sachs' incisive boyhood friendship Brooklyn drama

12/04/2018

Little Men (2016) - Sachs' incisive boyhood friendship Brooklyn drama

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year


The five main characters look straight at us from a white wall background on this simple poster for Ira Sachs' Little Men, which carries the poignant tagline; 'Be on each other's side'

Jacob is a 13 year-old, artistically disposed boy from New York. When his grandfather dies, the man leaves behind the ownership of a building in Brooklyn, whereto Jacob's family moves. The boy Tony who lives on the ground floor becomes Jacob's new best friend, - but his mother can't pay the new, elevated rent.

Little Men is the 8th feature from great Tennessean co-writer/director Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On (2012)), written with Mauricio Zacharias (Love for Sale (2006)). It is a lovely film of friendship in the formative years, a friendship which, (true to form for Sachs, who usually makes LGBT-themed works), also contains a secret grain of a crush in it for Jacob, and also about the annoying life decisions made by one's family, which often changes an underage child's life.
The boys, Theo Taplitz (Dybbuk (2017, short)) and Michael Barbieri (Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)), are well-cast as the the precocious, introverted roller-blader Jake, and Brooklyn-accented, extroverted Tony. The adult actors also are distinguished here; Greg Kinnear (Thin Ice (2011)) stands out (again), here as a weak family father, but Kinnear portrays him with brilliant honesty.
The rent dilemma is a great invention and diabolically irritating. Little Men is a tender film, which keeps to its quiet realism over Movie Drama, SPOILER and finally it denies us the reunion of the boys, which we are hoping for. It goes to show that Sachs doesn't care to follow his audiences' wishes, which he doesn't in this fine, short-story-like gift of a youth drama.

Related posts:

Ira Sachs: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Love Is Strange (2014) - Great performances in roaming, should-have-been-better movie
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Keep The Lights On (2012) or, In Love With a Drug Addict

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 1 times the cost)
[Little Men premiered 25 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 85 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The film opened #43 to a 30k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it widened to 59 theaters but never attained a higher rank and grossed 702k $ (35.1 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 2nd biggest market. The biggest and 3rd biggest markets were France with 749k $ (37.5 %) and the UK with 230k $ (11.5 %). The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards. Sachs returns with Frankie (2019), again starring Kinnear. Taplitz returned in The Middle (2017, TV-series) and theatrically in Gringo (2018), Barbieri in Nunsense (2016, TV-series) and theatrically in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Kinnear in Confirmation (2016, TV movie), BoJack Horseman (2016, TV-series) and theatrically in Brigsby Bear (2017). Little Men is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Little Men?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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12/04/2018

Little Men (2016) - Sachs' incisive boyhood friendship Brooklyn drama

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