Synopsis
Jake is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler with dreams of being an artist. He meets the affably brash Tony at his grandfather's funeral, and the unlikely pair soon hit it off. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake's father, Brian, and Tony's mother, Leonor, threatens to become contentious.
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Cast
- Greg KinnearBrian Jardine
- Jennifer EhleKathy Jardine
- Paulina GarcíaLeonor
- Michael BarbieriTony Calvelli
- Theo TaplitzJake Jardine
- Talia BalsamAudrey
- Maliq JohnsonUmar
- Anthony A. FlamminioJoey
- Madison WrightJulia
- John ProcaccinoMr. Plummer
- 100
The Guardian
Sachs’ approach is so humane, and his characters so fully rendered, that an agenda never announces itself; instead, Sachs’ worldview seeps into you. He’s that skilled a film-maker. - 100
The Hollywood Reporter
The performances are impeccable. Sachs is a master of expressive understatement, and that applies both to the young actors playing the boys — there's not a false moment from either of them — and to the adults. - 100
Screen Daily
The remarkable, magical thing about this film is that, at 85 minutes, it’s so whole. With its fully-formed people and changing places, Little Men is a film a viewer can live in, and think about while they’re there. - 100
CineVue
Sachs' extraordinarily humane knack for emotional restraint echoes throughout Little Men. And it is all the more profound for it. - 90
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The power of Little Men is in how the characters resist the melodramatic flow (which is, come to think of it, how Chekhov works, too). - 90
Variety
Ira Sachs’ Little Men is a little movie brimming with little truths about modern life. It won’t change the world, but it does understand it - 83
The Playlist
The beauty of Little Men — and of the director’s work in general — is that it displays a rare understanding of how the world works. - 83
Consequence
Little Men is a summer breeze, with rich melodrama and an easygoing mood, built up around two great kids and their troubled families that says more than any after-school special. It’s an episode of actual experience, presented in lovingly natural, minimalist strokes.