Little Men

Booming property prices drive the narrative in this indie drama from co-writer/director Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange). When jobbing actor Greg Kinnear moves his family into his late father's apartment in Brooklyn, he also becomes landlord of the ground floor retail unit occupied by a Chilean dressmaker (Paulina García). Her gregarious teenage son (Michael Barbieri) soon strikes up an unlikely friendship with Kinnear's boy, a rather arty outsider (Theo Taplitz), yet souring negotiations over a new lease agreement causes the two lads to take common cause against their bickering parents. What sounds like a small-scale affair is actually filled with insights about the economic pressures that divide households and how the world-weary attitudes of older generations impinge on their children's crucial formative years. The portrayal of the adolescents - two very different young men in the making - is particularly well-observed, while the underrated Kinnear shines as the dad doing his best while mired in his own disappointments. Rich, thoughtful and affecting, this is absolute top quality film-making.