Little Men
Director: Ira Sachs
Talent: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Alfred Molina
Release Date: 23rd September
Little Men, the latest feature from Keep the Lights On director Ira Sachs is a small-scale affair brimming with big emotions. After his father’s death, Brian Jardine (Greg Kinnear) inherits a building in Brooklyn. Brian is a struggling actor and relies on his wife Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) for financial support. To ease financial pressure, the two move from Manhattan to Brooklyn with their son Jake (Taplitz), who quickly makes friends with the son of the downstairs tenant.
The film’s title references the boys’ friendship: they’re from different worlds, but a mutual love of the arts brings them together. Their interactions are well-observed and often tender. Little Men also speaks to the pettiness of the adults in the film: the Jardines squabble with one another, and Brian puts the squeeze on Tony’s mother Leonor (Paulina Garcia), forcing her out of the building. Sachs’s film is equal parts energetic and sedate, it’s an affecting look at little men both big and small.
Words: Luke Maxwell
