MIFF NOTES: Little Men (2016, Dir. Ira Sachs)

Ira Sachs goes bright and personable with Little Men, his airy portrait of friendship in the Bronx. With two super-engaging leads in fresh-faced newcomers Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri, I’d say it’d be difficult not to fall for the film but somehow I managed not to.

There is something about Sachs’ slightly contrived set-up and the curiously non-communicative actions of the adults in the boys’ lives that pushed me out of their world. It is not necessarily an acting thing, though Paulina García’s single mother shop owner, who comes to loggerheads with her new landlords (the boys slot in one apiece) does play the passive aggressive a little too early on in the proceedings.

It is a shame that in such a modestly-scaled, carefully-toned film tripped me on this. The other moments, those in the respective families and those with the two boys hanging out are delightfully rendered, even reminiscent of my own standoffish childhood. They just rarely caught me up.

One of those I wish I liked more.

★★★

Trailer:

 Little Men screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.