Little Men

"Be on each other's side."

2016 1h 25m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 179

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Be on each other's side.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Greg Kinnear
Brian Jardine
Jennifer Ehle
Kathy Jardine
Paulina García
Leonor
Michael Barbieri
Tony Calvelli
Theo Taplitz
Jake Jardine
Talia Balsam
Audrey
Maliq Johnson
Umar
Anthony A. Flamminio
Joey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ira Sachs
Writers: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias
Languages: English
Countries: Brazil, Greece, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

85 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Brazil, Greece, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ira Sachs, shot by Óscar Durán. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dickon Hinchliffe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Affonso Gonçalves shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle and Paulina García carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Be on each other's side.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ira Sachs directs. Óscar Durán behind the camera. Dickon Hinchliffe scores. Affonso Gonçalves cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Brazil, Greece, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Released 10 years ago.
3International production across 3 countries: Brazil, Greece, United States of America.
4Directed by Ira Sachs, shot by Óscar Durán. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Dickon Hinchliffe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Affonso Gonçalves shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle and Paulina García carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Be on each other's side.".
9IMDB entry: tt4919484 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 9 themes, including "new york city", "coming of age", "best friend", "brooklyn, new york city".

The technical file

Cinematography: Óscar Durán
Original score: Dickon Hinchliffe
Editing: Affonso Gonçalves
Production design: Alexandra Schaller
Costume design: Eden Miller
Makeup / hair: Naomi Raddatz
Sound: Andy Kris
Runtime: 85 min · 1h 25m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Little Men (2016)

Awards

Grand prix du Festival de Deauville

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Ira Sachs

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2017-06-15
★ 5/10
Friendship or business! 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

Production companies