小大人2016

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).

我们曾渴望过这样的感觉 我们曾拥有过这样的感觉 我们曾遗忘过这样的感觉 我们曾怀念过这样的感觉 那种感觉，一份缘一恍邂 重拾不起，一酿成醋一惚生涩 就这样，暮年响门，我们再度相逢 你好，我好，只叹那一段岁月不曾静好。。。

羁绊是美好的，也是痛苦的，但是不要害怕，因为这就是生活，杜绝这一切，剩下的只是生存，与行尸无异，同走肉无疑。生命只有一次，别在它结束前，活得像它结束后。

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。

导演在处理故事时非常克制，没有引入激烈的戏剧冲突，但其干净的视听语言自带情感张力。

影片中第一次讨论房租问题时，很多观众想必能自然而然地预感到后续的冲突：双方父母未达成一致，孩子因此关系破裂。但至少令我意外的是，导演把冲突平和化、理性化，没有想象中剧烈的争吵与情感宣泄。想象一下在我们当下，有多少父母面对孩子的沉默抗议，能够做到数天（至少4天）还没有情绪失控，还能与孩子相对理性地沟通。这些理性与克制，反而让影片的表达没有被戏剧冲突所淹没，而是聚焦在了经历一些无奈时刻的记忆与感受，可能更能促进我们与生活的和解。

父亲首演后驾车回去的路上，杰克得知父母们处理房租的结果，这是两个情感爆发的时刻。它们都未引来“受众”的对抗，以引向激烈的交锋，而是述说着成人与孩子各自的弱点与无奈（想一想父亲和杰克在各自情绪失控时刻的独白）。现实生活不是童话世界，并不是总能按照我们的意愿发展，也不能满足每一个人的诉求，更多的是会伤害到一些人但又不得不做的决定。于是，妥协与无奈不可避免。

不过，这是生活的一部分，并非生活的全部。致那些无奈时刻，也致那些通过成长与努力而避免的伤害。