Writer's note – To point to today's opening of Little Men, this review is being repurposed from the end of “Snuff is Painful and Messy and Brutal.”
Little Men revolves around shy 13-year-old Jake (Theo Taplitz), who moves with his family from Manhattan to the Brooklyn home of his grandfather, who has died. Attached to the residence is a dress shop that was rented from gramps by a Chilean woman (Paulina Garcia), whose outgoing son Tony (Michael Barbieri) strikes up a friendship with Jake.
Once the boys are thick as thieves, their relationship is tested by a tenant dispute initiated by Jake's parents (Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle).
The adult actors in Little Men are fine, with Garcia effectively putting up a stone face as she belittles her business foes, Ehle giving a sort of Laura Linney-lite performance (meant as a compliment) and Kinnear once again fully committing to a role, as he always does, whether unraveling as the dad in Little Miss Sunshine or suffering separation issues in Stuck On You.
My problem is with the teen actors.
Taplitz has a look that will serve him well in the TV and movie business, and I haven't heard a New York accent like Barbieri's come out of someone so young since the Dead End Kids. But director Ira Sachs, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mauricio Zacharias, has too many scenes where the young actors seem to be reciting lines from a page, especially when they are with other young actors at—where else?—an acting school.
That said, Barbieri has one scene with an acting teacher that has to be seen to be believed. It's the most unpredictable part of the otherwise predictable Little Men.
Little Men was directed by Ira Sachs; written by Mauricio Zacharias and Ira Sachs; and stars Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina Garcia, Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz. At Westpark 8 Cinemas, 3735 Alton Pkwy., Irvine, (844) 462-7342; www.regmovies.com/theatres/theatre-folder/edwards-westpark-8-1297; also at Rancho Niguel 8 Cinemas, 25471 Rancho Niguel Rd., Laguna Niguel, (949) 831-0446; www.regencymovies.com. Opens today; check theater website for show times and ticket prices.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.