Inclubabu
Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
YouHeart
I gave it a 7.5 out of 10
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
masonfisk
Little Men is a small movie about big decisions. How can we navigate the financial w/the heartfelt, the mundane w/the important, the lesser things w/the big picture? A parent dies leaving his tenant's future in the balance as his adult children try to resolve matters. The respective children of children become best friends in the midst of this emotional turmoil & the right thing has to be done. Quiet moments speaks volumes as the film reaches its tentative yet obvious conclusion.
woodcoinmagazine
Rating this film PG for "smoking" (it includes an adult cigarette smoker) is the biggest travesty here... There's nothing at all offensive in terms of strong language or sexual situations to warrant anything but a G-rating for this already-came- of-age film. A smaller travesty is that the film is obviously an older reworked script, updated with cell phones and gentrification and featuring athletic boys who avoid pools and implausibly keep their shirts on throughout (as is customary in America now to avoid accusations of child pornography - by contrast, the G-rated coming- of-age French film "My Father's Glory" from the 1990s has boys of a similar age in slo-mo full-frontal nudity). If lusty teen sexuality is what a viewer anticipates with a title like "Little Men," look elsewhere. That being said, the resulting movie is a sublimely watchable and brilliantly engaging story about gentrification and the intimate drama that urban renewal causes. Superb acting and a realistic premise should keep most viewers of serious cinema somewhat rapt and definitely impressed. Yet the finale may be something of a let-down to those who expect an intensive resolution instead of a climax that meanders to a halt.
Reno Rangan
This is a pure drama. Like a real life event, though there's no documentary style narration influenced. Thematically very, very simple, and also the characters, but too flat when it comes to entertainment value. Of course, drama-films usually does not entertain its viewers, except for who are ardent fans of that genre. Apart from depicting the real life, sometimes they carry messages with them. But this film has no tick marks on any of those boxes. So it is a boring film if you pick it to watch when you're on the average or in the bad mood. I did not feel that way, just hinting out it could do that for others.The storyline had no focal point. It is neither a children's film, nor about the grownups' issues. But kind of mix of both on a small scale with strong outcome. Pretty much like on the two topics it was developed on. One was the 'death' which initiated everything and followed by the 'shop' that helped to make further progress in the tale. So using these, the film characters bloomed. Even though, these topics come into play occasionally and in the meantime, the scenes were wasted or you can say it followed the character to their daily routine to fill the film runtime.So what's that mean is the screenplay, which was not at its best. It does not follow the traditional film way on the character developments. Like I expected the friendship between two boys like how they find each other as to emerge a strong bond. That did not happen. It was just like I said in the real life, too casual and understandable.The same goes for the adult characters as well. When they decide to handle the shop issue, it was like hesitation like any average concerned family does. So this film will be good if your life is/was close to the events in the film. Like either it is your friendship that tested or dealing the sensitive issue as a grown-up that affects deeply those concerned ones.❝Once again, our warm, lovable, unwise father has left us a big mess and no instructions.❞Now you might think what this film is all about. This is the story of the two families connected with a building. Opens with a small Manhattan family arriving in Brooklyn to conduct the last rite to their deceased father. They are received by another family who rented the shop in the ground floor. Both the family has the young boys of the same age and following the ceremony, the two become very close. But when their parents decide to sort out the shop issue, it's all fall hard on them and their friendship. The remaining is to reveal the outcome of whatever happened.You might be familiar with the quote that goes like this, 'a friendship founded on business in better than a business founded on friendship'. Basically, that's where the film inspired from. But it expanded to two sets of the characters, between the youngsters and the adults. These two categories are exactly opposite in mindset. Youngsters usually does not care about money that involves friends, but for adults, money is a serious matter to handle. The 'business' is attached to the parents and the 'friendship' drawn between their children.Now that's the complication involves as many people as to solve without affecting anybody. But most of the film was overwhelmed by scenes of other than this issue. They ignored to focus completely on where it had calibre. I felt the casting was the best thing happened in the film, particularly those boys. Alfred Molina, who played one of the main characters in the director's previous film was appeared here in a guest role for like a minute. The rest of them were decent as well, including Greg Kinnear.The film was just under the 90 minutes, yet too slow paced narration. Does not fit for everyone to watch. Imagine if this film was played on the television, with all the commercial breaks, you won't able to finish it off. Not without patience, because it is already dull, and if you will run out that, that's it. A lot like a product for the film festivals and it did fared decently on those platforms, but surely some people would find it good. So now you might think what my stance is. I liked it, also didn't. An average film with a slipped away opportunity. I am not sure, but still feel like I want to suggest it.5/10
Alex
What can I say about this film except it is the "Emperor's Clothes". Why do I say this? There is nothing to it, except the potential to be average. Some of the acting was good, some of the plot lines were OK but are never developed past the superficial. There are 3 areas of disappointment. 1) The relationship between the boys has no emotion or energy, it seems false so we don't engage. The reference to an absent father and the pain to the boy was a hook to his future failure, which was too obvious and shallow. Reinforced by the truly awful father and son scene where the father states that hard work and effort isn't worth it if you have the talent, what rubbish, talk to anyone who has reached the top of their profession, hard work as well as talent gets you there. 2) What really was the relationship between the dressmaker and the grandfather? Half hinted at and yet we are meant to be emotionally drawn to her plea to stay and not pay the going rate. Really? 3) What was the director trying to do with this film, it definitely wasn't about the relationship between the 2 boys, it wasn't about the relationship between father and son, present or absent,nor about families,stay at home husband with working wife, struggling immigrant entrepreneurs. Sorrow, loss, sex, growing up, getting old, nothing, was developed or built on! There was never a point when you emotionally engage with the film, it was slow and said nothing about friendship, love, loyalty, sorrow, duty, growing up or the central core of the film, coming of age and leaving behind childhood.