小大人

Checking out of the genderqueer bracket, American indie urban aesthete Ira Sachs’ LITTLE MEN continues with his concern of Brooklyn’s gentrification, in LOVE IS STRANGE (2014), a senior gay couple cannot afford their apartment and has to live separately, a temporary arrangement eventually plunges into a precipitate farewell, here, it centers around a nuclear family, Brian Jardine (Kinnear), a seasoned thespian struggling to pay the bills, his wife Kathy (Ehle), a full-time psychotherapist, and their 13-year-old son Jake (Taplitz), move into Brian’s father’s two-story building, inherited after the latter’s death. They have a tenant, the Chilean immigrant Leonor Calvelli (García), a single mother who operates an artisanal dress shop in the ground floor, by dint of a very low monthly rent arranged between her and Brian’s father for many years.

Brian and his sister Audrey (Balsam), both need money to support their families, revises a new lease demanding a treble amount of fee (still, considerably cheaper than the ballooning market price), which builds a tension between the two families, and what is also at cost is the newfound friendship between Jake and his coeval Tony (Barbieri), Leonor’s son, when their quotidian proximity is discontinued.

More than anything, the two kid actors are phenomenal, both first-time actors, Theo Taplitz remarkably imbues an adorable appearance of sensitivity and androgyny to accentuate Jake’s painter’s disposition, not to mention his heart-rending plea in the climax. Whereas Michael Barbieri is totally on the opposite of the spectrum, with his convivial, animated verve and a naturalistic elocution that betrays his age, which is fit as glove as Tony’s aspiring actor identity. Their friendship seems very organic, albeit their polarized make-ups, mercifully and perspicaciously Sachs doesn’t make a heavy weather of Jake’s budding affection towards Tony, which is tacitly suggested but as in reality, like as not, those little torch-carrying secret is mostly saved for its originator to savor and wallow, bless Sachs for not sensationalize a young boy’s vulnerable, inchoate sexual awakening.

Grownups are also a cracking cluster, almost 20 years after his Oscar-nominated breakthrough in AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997), Greg Kinnear matures with an understated complexity that is given a full range here, he is a grieving son, a frustrating breadwinner, a glowing actor on stage, a devoted, grateful husband and a caring father, who is saddled with a daunting task to negotiate an unpleasant business deal with a tough-nut in the form of a magnificent Paulina García, nothing is above her Leonor to get what she intends, emotional manipulation, outright humiliation, tactical evasion, even if a child’s innocent, heartfelt plea can do the trick, she has no qualms about leveraging it. García has so many strings to her bow, and each one adds a tangible layer to her character’s humanity, warts and all, which is such an exceptional achievement that defiantly flouts the atrocious typecast of a downtrodden immigrant woman struggling in the land of freedom, here, she fervently digs in her heels and brazens it out in fighting a losing battle.

Sending out a well-meaning message of “letting go the past”, Sachs’ LITTLE MEN is the whole package, a school of hard knocks for an adolescent, a critical looking into the miasma of gentrification and a hyperreal examination of ordinary beings’ interrelations.

referential entries: Sachs’ LOVE IS STRANGE (2014, 7.8/10), KEEP THE LIGHTS ON (2012, 6.8/10).

电影的内容让我非常熟悉，想起了11年前的我和我最好的朋友。

我们是在同一栋楼生活的，每年夏天，都有很多同龄的小朋友在小区游泳池玩耍，我们也是在那里认识的，说起来挺好笑的，我们互相都注意到对方，但是我一直不敢跟她讲话，后来她终于打破沉寂：“可以交个朋友吗？”

我们关系很好，幸运的是，她妈妈也非常喜欢我。每个夏天，我们会一起游泳，放假时去她的家玩，我们一起逛街，一起去图书馆，一起玩电脑游戏，那时是我最快乐的时光。

她比我稍稍成熟些，我的妈妈不太喜欢她，但我觉得，再也没有比她更了解我的了。我们计划好要去同一所初中读书，但她突然跟我说，她要搬家了，要去别的城市上学。

那一瞬间，我真的好难过，我觉得我的心空了，现在想起来虽然感觉自己特别矫情，但当时的我像从天空的云朵上慢慢坠落下去。

我们都改变不了大人的决定，最终她还是去了离我家三个多钟头路程的城市。那时我们并没有手机，自然跟她断了联系。过了一年，她突然打到我家里的电话，告诉我她要回来一次，我兴奋地跳了起来，真的抑制不了自己的心情。但我记得她最终还是没过来，因为某些原因，放了我三次鸽子。随着进入学校，认识更多的朋友，我也渐渐淡忘了当初与她那种密不可分的感情。到初中快毕业的时候，她给我打了通电话，聊了很久，我特别开心，又特别心疼她不愉快的初中生活。我记得我们仅仅见过一次面，她就出国读书了，这次更远了，我很难再去找她了。但我很开心，她没有忘记我，时不时会打电话，发短信给我，偶尔知道你过得还不错，那也挺好的。

直到2017年，她终于回国了，她再一次约我出去，我有点忐忑，又有点激动，就像许久未见的老朋友，既熟悉，又陌生，但好在，我们还是最初那样，无话不谈。后来的后来，她来到离我仅仅一个小时的城市工作，只要大家有空，就能一起去玩。而我妈妈也认为我们这么多年还能这么要好，确实不容易，也放下了她原来的成见。

跨越了8年的友情，有时候可能也不会随时间淡化，《小大人》里的结局，我认为是开放式的，杰克跟我一样，以为失去了自己最好的朋友，可能一辈子再也不会见面了，但是如果其中一方主动找对方，故事就还没结束，希望杰克跟托尼，能再某天遇见，还能像以前那样。

人生路说长不长，说短不短，但与人之间的缘分，却太短了，遇见过这么多朋友，还能继续联系的，没有多少。如果有多年未见还能畅谈的朋友，请一定要珍惜。

我觉得Tony是个gay，看了Q&A没想到是真的，看片的时候一直在YY一个gay男孩爱上了自己异性恋朋友的悲剧。看到父母们不算激烈的撕逼，一直想告诉那两个男孩一声。没想到最后Jacob会轻易地原谅父母，或许他本身性格就是温柔体贴的，如果是我，估计会很久不和父母说话。不过两人最后逐渐生疏倒是预料到了，成长的过程就是不断遇到新的人，建立新的关系，然后和很多以前的朋友渐行渐远，伤感但这也许就是人生。