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

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+ 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 III]

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?

Love Is Strange (2014) - Great performances in roaming, should-have-been-better movie

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Alfred Molina and John Lithgow on their way to their marriage ceremony on the poster for Ira Sachs's Love Is Strange

QUICK REVIEW:

Our protagonists here are an aging gay couple, who get married on a happy day, but then bumps their heads against the wall, as the younger of the two's Catholic employer is forced to fire him due to the marriage. - And, in short, life gets complicated.
Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2 (2004)) and John Lithgow (Obsession (1976)) really do seem to love each other in Love Is Strange and both give tremendous performances, - as does Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler (2008)), - and the film has beautiful periods. Unfortunately, it also seems to linger or hesitate some at several junctures. The script (by Mauricio Zacharias and director Ira Sachs, who also co-wrote his preceding film, the great Keep the Lights On (2012)) is pretty minimalistic and focuses a bit on this and a bit on that, and doesn't follow up on all of its detours.
And then SPOILER this slightly unfocused film ends in a surprising tragedy, - which effect on the remaining lead is oddly stifled, - and it isn't a satisfactory bow for the film.
Still, this is an at times moving and delicate little film from Memphis-born Ira Sachs (The Delta (1996)).
Love Is Strange has gotten a completely unmotivated R-rating (for 'language', which there's hardly any of, while for instance The Expendables 3 (full of violence, killing and 'language' gets a PG-13), proving that homosexual themes are still regarded as virally infective by the MPAA, the Stone Age fools...

 Watch the trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 2.2 mil. $
= Unknown

What do you think of Love Is Strange?
Have you seen other Ira Sachs-films and if so, how were they?