Film Review: Little Men

Ira Sachs’ sensitive drama Love Is Strange used a touching family story to examine how both institutionalised homophobia and rent laws affected an elderly gay couple in New York. In Little Men, Sachs continues his exploration of relationships against a backdrop of gentrification, but with an empathy and nuance that avoids cliché.
Sachs’ leading men are 13 year olds Tony and Jacob (Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz), who become instant best friends when Jacob moves to Brooklyn. Jacob’s grandfather has died, leaving an apartment and store to his son, Brian (a wonderful Greg Kinnear). The store is run by Tony’s Chilean mother Leonor (Paulina Garcia), who has lived in the neighbourhood for a decade. Her survival is dependent on Brian not raising the rent to market value, and she’s ready to fight. But Brian isn’t a typical greedy yuppie; a struggling actor, his family has been living off his wife’s (Jennifer Ehle) salary for years. 
As Brian takes on Chekhov’s most iconic male role Trigorin in a middling production of The Seagull, and it’s hinted that Jacob may be gay, Sachs again subtly examines our evolving ideas of what it means to be a man – and a good one, at that.
As the adults engage in increasingly less polite battles over rent and contracts, the young boys commence their own form of revolution. Dreaming of artistic futures, and starting silent protests as their parents fight, Sachs captures the idealism of young men who don’t yet understand that money sometimes trumps all. 
Sachs’ writing and directing is subtle and poignant, capturing the personal stories behind gentrification as well as the feverish beauty of young friendship Alongside Woody Allen’s neurotic humour and Scorsese’s blistering grit, Sachs is becoming a quintessential New York director, capturing the heart of this great city.

Directed by Ira Sachs.
Starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina Garcia, Michael Barbieri, Theo Taplitz, Alfred Molina. 85 mins
In cinemas September 23