PAST FILM SCREENING

LITTLE MEN

January 4 – 2:00 + 7:30 PM

USA / Greece, 2016 – Rated PG – 85 minutes
– in English and Spanish with English subtitles
Directed by Ira Sachs
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García

When 13-year-old Jake’s (Theo Taplitz) grandfather dies, his family moves from Manhattan back into his father’s old Brooklyn home. There, Jake befriends the charismatic Tony (Michael Barbieri), whose single mother Leonor (Paulina Garcia), a dressmaker from Chile, runs the shop downstairs. Soon, Jake’s parents Brian (Greg Kinnear) and Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) – one, a struggling actor, the other, a psychotherapist – ask Leonor to sign a new, steeper lease on her store. For Leonor, the proposed new rent is untenable, and a feud ignites between the adults. At first, Jake and Tony don’t seem to notice; the two boys, so different on the surface, begin to develop a formative kinship as they discover the pleasures of being young in Brooklyn. Jake aspires to be an artist, while Tony wants to be an actor, and they have dreams of going to the same prestigious arts high school together. But the children can’t avoid the problems of their parents forever, and soon enough, the adult conflict intrudes upon the borders of their friendship.

“It’s time to realize that Ira Sachs is a modern master. Little Men, with its two boys racing at life with the brick wall of maturity still at a distance, is truly an exhilarating gift.”

– Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“By the end, Sachs has raised urgent questions about immigration, classism, gentrification, loyalty, family and nascent sexuality – but he’s done so utterly organically, via 10 square feet of city. Lovely.” – Johanna Schneller, The Globe and Mail