Sweet Sixteen

Rating:
Summary: Good solid Loach film.
Review: Ken Loach films tend to be hit-and-miss for me. I loved "Bread and Roses," for example, but disliked "Carla's Song." I was uncertain exactly what was in store for me when I rented "Sweet Sixteen". The film is set in Scotland, and the accents are strong enough that the film is subtitled. The story concerns a 15-year-old boy named Liam whose mother is serving jail time for illegal substances. Liam lives with his violent stepfather (who sells those illegal substances) and his unpleasant grandfather. The home situation is tenuous at best, but when Liam disobeys his stepfather's attempt to smuggle drugs to his mother during a prison visit, he is beaten and tossed out on the streets.

Liam moves in with his sister, Chantelle--a single mother--who lays down some rules in an attempt to protect her child. Liam and best friend, Pinball, dream of buying a caravan for 6,000 pounds, and the plan becomes to get this caravan in time for Liam's mother's release from jail.

"Sweet Sixteen"--although a tale of hopelessness, was not overwhelmingly depressing, and this is thanks to the likeablity of Liam's character. Liam has no future, and no means of getting a quick 6,000 pounds, so he turns to Heroin sales as a way to meet his humble goal. There is something fundamentally good in Liam's soul, but unfortunately he is corrupted thanks to his environment. He doesn't stop and question the morality of selling Heroin--after all, it's a family tradition. During some scenes, I was touched by Liam's childlike qualities, and yet at other times, I was horrified by his behaviour (when he goes joyriding with his infant nephew for example). These sorts of scenes underscore the moral vacuity of Liam's upbringing. What chance does Liam have? What chance did he ever have?

Loach tends to concentrate on the working classes, and this film is not an exception to this. The picture Loach paints is bleak indeed, and I couldn't help but wonder how much Liam could have achieved in life if given better circumstances. Martin Comstock plays Liam, and this is his first acting role. He really does an incredible job and is a natural. The film is gritty, dark, and full of hopeless characters who cannot escape from their environment, and yet some optimism remains. "Sweet Sixteen" was not a pretty film, and it certainly is a sad commentary on our times that a kid as resourceful, clever, and funny as Liam remains trapped in a world without opportunities--other than criminal--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: Good solid Loach film.
Review: Ken Loach films tend to be hit-and-miss for me. I loved "Bread and Roses," for example, but disliked "Carla's Song." I was uncertain exactly what was in store for me when I rented "Sweet Sixteen". The film is set in Scotland, and the accents are strong enough that the film is subtitled. The story concerns a 15-year-old boy named Liam whose mother is serving jail time for illegal substances. Liam lives with his violent stepfather (who sells those illegal substances) and his unpleasant grandfather. The home situation is tenuous at best, but when Liam disobeys his stepfather's attempt to smuggle drugs to his mother during a prison visit, he is beaten and tossed out on the streets.

Liam moves in with his sister, Chantelle--a single mother--who lays down some rules in an attempt to protect her child. Liam and best friend, Pinball, dream of buying a caravan for 6,000 pounds, and the plan becomes to get this caravan in time for Liam's mother's release from jail.

"Sweet Sixteen"--although a tale of hopelessness, was not overwhelmingly depressing, and this is thanks to the likeablity of Liam's character. Liam has no future, and no means of getting a quick 6,000 pounds, so he turns to Heroin sales as a way to meet his humble goal. There is something fundamentally good in Liam's soul, but unfortunately he is corrupted thanks to his environment. He doesn't stop and question the morality of selling Heroin--after all, it's a family tradition. During some scenes, I was touched by Liam's childlike qualities, and yet at other times, I was horrified by his behaviour (when he goes joyriding with his infant nephew for example). These sorts of scenes underscore the moral vacuity of Liam's upbringing. What chance does Liam have? What chance did he ever have?

Loach tends to concentrate on the working classes, and this film is not an exception to this. The picture Loach paints is bleak indeed, and I couldn't help but wonder how much Liam could have achieved in life if given better circumstances. Martin Comstock plays Liam, and this is his first acting role. He really does an incredible job and is a natural. The film is gritty, dark, and full of hopeless characters who cannot escape from their environment, and yet some optimism remains. "Sweet Sixteen" was not a pretty film, and it certainly is a sad commentary on our times that a kid as resourceful, clever, and funny as Liam remains trapped in a world without opportunities--other than criminal--displacedhuman.

Rating:
Summary: Just Like Life For Some!
Review: Ken Loach is probably one of the last directors-auteurs in world cinema today, and certainly one of the most influential, independant and politically motivated directors in British cinema.Any new film by Loach is in itself an event eagerly anticipated by viewers, critics and festivals alike.
Sweet Sixteen is his latest masterpiece that is a world apart from most movies we watch these days.I can even say that the film took me back to the golden age of serious, original and heartfelt moviemaking of the late 60s to late 70s, that started with the French Nouvelle Vague and ended sadly with the debacle of Heaven's Gate.
Sweet Sixteen is the story of Liam, a working class and underpriviledged boy of fifteen, waiting eagerly for his mom's release from prison,the day before his sixteenth birthday, to start afresh and try to break the cycle of misery and poverty that has been his lot all his life.
He finds a caravan for sale at the edge of a lake, with breathtaking scenery, and is determined to buy it for his mother,sister and her small toddler as a stepstone for the new start he craves.
He is prepared to 'sleep with the devil' to achieve his goal, and get enough cash to pay for this dream home, and in that case, the devil is the local drug baron who trusts him enough to include him in his inner circle, after a hard test.
Liam moves from the petty and illegal sale of cigarettes to drugs which he never uses himself, but is prepared to go all the way in the 'devil's' territory and dirty work in an unflinching determination to achieve his dreams.
His new boss even offers him a flat, after his caravan was burned, since as he said, he takes cares of 'his own'.
Yet the hard life that has been his for as long as he remembers, is a much stronger force than the aspirations of a teenager, and with a best friend who betrays him, his mother's boyfriend who is as nasty as they come, his cold and detached grandfather, and eventually his mother who finds it impossible to break from her relationship when she comes out of prison, and in a way is totally mentally imprisoned by the negative resignation to her fate, all these manage to destroy Liam's dreams, and lead him subsequently in a rash moment to an act that will forever crush him.
The very end, which I will not reveal,is one of the most powerful scenes I have seen for a long while,heartbreaking, but utterly moving.
Yes, Sweet Sixteen is depressing, but in the same way that life can be.
The film mirrors the reality of the underpriviledged, the limited choices and opportunities they have got, and even with the great effort they put to break out, the odds are mostly stacked against them from different sources or circumstances.
Yet, amid this gritty realism, there is some hope in Sweet Sixteen: The decency of Liam is quite astounding.His dedication and total devotion and need for his mother, his loyalty for his best friend, and his love for his sister and his nephew are never compromised by what he goes through, and this was marvellous to watch, and has a message that even though at the end things will not work as one plans, the qualities of a person inside can survive.
Loach style was also quite stunning,and he films the slums of Glasgow with the same beauty he films the scenery of the countryside, and with enough light to lift the mood slightly.(minimal night or rain shots)
Lastly I have to say what a brilliant eye Loach has for choosing his cast, and he could not have chosen a better lead to play Liam that Martin Compston: he was excellent,as well as AnneMarie Fulton(the sister) and Gary McCormack(mom's boyfriend).
Sweet Sixteen may be depressing yes, but never sentimental or overbearing, just real like life itself,where there aren't always happy endings. A Masterpeice and a Must Buy!

Rating:
Summary: Poignant Picture of a Bitter/Sweet Life of a Boy in Scotland
Review: Ken Loach, after his "Bread and Roses" set in USA, returns to the territory he knows well. "Sweet Sixteen" features the life of Liam, 15 years-old boy living in a small town in Scotalnd, who is waiting for his mother in prison to come back, and is desperate to make his "home" perfect for her when she is back with him. To do so, he is selling some stuffs illegally with his best friend, loose-cannon Pinball. But he never expected to what his latest scheme of selling drug is leading him and his family including his loving single-mother sister Chantelle.

If you read the synopsis like this, you might expect this film is a dark, dreary one. The fact is different. "Sweet Sixteen" is a gritty drama about the youth who cannot grasp the reality surrounding him, it manages to transcend the darkness of it, and presents it in the most human, even tender light. The characters even bad ones are not flatly written, and the teenage-angst story escapes clithes found in usual "gangster" films. The film is inevitably played in a lower key with a sad feeling, but not so much as to depress you.

The focal point of the film's sucess if of course Liam played by Martin Compston, who had no previous acting experiances (in fact, very few of the cast had it before the shooting of the film). And Compston was originally planning to be a professional footballer in Scotland, but is found out during the audition for the film (and he didn't want to go at first!).

Director Ken Loach is famous for his skills in letting the actors give their very best, pros and non-pros alike, and people like Terrence Stamp, Robert Carlyle, or Peter Mulan have already testified to this fact, giving their superb acting in his films made in the past. Martin Compston, who succeeds in displaying the poignant portrait of a youth who with his good brain doesn't know what to do in his life, is more convincing than Ewan in "Trainspotting," and surely is one of the greatest finds Ken Loach made in his long career. In short, this boy can really act.

Ken Loach, who slyly inserts his social messages in his films, is also a good storyteller and artist skilled in presenting the atomosphere of the place, and his Scotland looks very authentic. The characters speak many dirty words (and in thick Scottish accent) but don't be afraid of watching this film. Loach is political, to be sure, but that fact doesn't hinder us from watching the film as a great character study which is always powerful and bitter-sweet -- perhaps more bitter than sweet.

Rating:
Summary: Teenage Hamlet
Review: Liam (Martin Compston) is 15 and filled with dreams of a better life for himself and his imprisoned, but soon to be released Mother. Liam is also possessed of a remarkable amount of horse sense, cunning and street smarts. In many scenes he is very kind and considerate, obviously troubled when he is asked to betray a confidence or a friend. This ambiguity in Liam's nature causes him much pain and remorse but he is without the where-with-all emotionally to avoid it.
Without positive parental guidance and brought up in a milieu of drugs and thievery, Liam obviously looks to these pursuits to elevate his standard of living and to somehow create a life of normalcy. He does Bad in order to attain his under developed sense of what is Good.
Ken Loach has directed with an eye on the brutal realities of Liam's life as well as on the what-might-have-been. His color palette is primary: deep, dark yet vivid blues, reds, yellows and greens when he is dealing with Liam's baser instincts but pastel and bright in scenes in which Liam is interacting with his Mother, Sister and Nephew.
"Sweet Sixteen" is a very calm yet disruptive film filled with images of mayhem and violence yet always reflective and forgiving and in many instances sweet natured. That Ken Loach seduces us into understanding Liam's world and forgiving him his wrongdoing only attests to the all-encompassing nature of his intelligent, persuasive and humane skills as a director.

Rating:
Summary: Striking Look At Scotland
Review: Many films available to Western markets regarding the culture, customs, and struggles of the British peoples leave Scotland quite out of the picture. Sweet Sixteen is refreshing change, then, as a very in-depth look at the situation of one young Scotsman.

There is a romantic idea about Great Britan, at least in my circles, that posits some sort of dreamworld in which the peoples of the Isles are living happily ever after. Various films spotlighting the Ireland of today have, in recent years, discredited such ideas. Nonetheless, what is Scotland but sheep and kilts and idyllic castle scenes? It is a place much like the one in which Americans live as well. Young Liam, the protagonist of Sweet Sixteen, is trying to put his really messed up family back together. To do so, he chooses to accept a life of crime to secure the funds necessary to buy his small family's independence from his horrid grandfather and his mother's boyfriend.

Crime doesn't pay after all, for Liam, however. Through his struggles to find an equilibrium at the expense of others, he tarnishes his noble Scots soul with petty theft, brawls, drug-dealing, and even an attempted murder. It becomes very difficult to sympathize with the likable young man who catches our attention at the beginning of the film. Sadly, our look at Liam does not leave him in a state any happier than he was when we found him. It is not a new idea or theme that is introduced in Sweet Sixteen, but the moral is one which America seems to often forget: the youth are noble and will do nobly if we give them the opporutunity. Liam was not given the opportunity, left to the care of two abusive men who provided a predilection to crime. The world shamefully failed Liam, though his responsibility was not ingnored in the film.

Sweet Sixteen offers the Western world a chance to reconsider the way we raise children, operate social services, and the frequency and ease of divorce.

Rating:
Summary: Nice movie ... nice subtitles
Review: The movie is sweet in its own way ... but seriously, is there anyone outside of Glasgow who could understand a word these people were saying? Granted, it makes the girls pretty alluring, those accents ...

Rating:
Summary: scottish reality???
Review: this film isnt very good at all.certainly not the masterpiece many claim.first things first,this is NOT typical scottish day to day living.much like a hood film like boyz n the hood,or the film kids,this film shows the most extreme example.and much like kids,this movie offers nothing more than cheap violent thrills and a bit of action.the ending is pathetic.why would he stab the guy at the end???? the answer is he wouldnt,therefore this it is rubbish!!! im not saying people like this dont exist,but there in the minority,whereas this film pictures this as a normality.its the fact its proporting to be realistic,but is no where near realistic that is the problem.much like the movie kids,rather than offering any answers to the problems,it just says,heres some very silly and misguided people for you to have a laugh at.the plotline is very poor,not really following a logical course,building up to the poor ending.realistic??? scottish people dont talk to each other like that!!!! i should know.ok,a very small number do.some of the dialogue is laughable in places.all of this smacks of a poorly constructed and hastily made film.and i dont think the lead character is acting that childishly brash little rogue he plays in the film,as any interview ive ever seen him in he comes across exactly like that.in short a poor movie.2 out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal movie.
Review: This is a phenomenal movie about a 15-year-old boy named Liam who is trapped in a culture and lifestyle of crime (in an early scene, his grandfather and his mother's boyfriend demand that he smuggle drugs to his mother in prison), when all he dreams about is creating a home for his mother, his sister, and her child. Liam is destined to repeat the same mistakes that he is fighting so hard against, and all we can do is sit back and watch him struggle with the rock-and-a-hard-place decisions with which he is faced.

This may sound like your typical "good boy falls in with the wrong crowd" film, but it is far from predictable, and the story and acting are excellent. Director Ken Loach does a fantastic job with a cast that is new to the acting world (sadly, this film will be overlooked because it features no "big names"), and they portray the culture and lives of these characters quite convincingly.

Highly recommended, and it is worthwhile to listen to Loach's commentary track as well.

Rating:
Summary: The side of Scotland people never see.
Review: This is not a feel good movie, and you might be left with mixed emotions once the credits start rolling. But if you want a movie that isn't a fairy take, and one that forces you to think, Sweet Sixteen is a good choice.

I see no reason this film shouldn't have been made. I don't think Sweet Sixteen's purpose is to introduce or represent Scottish culture. It's about a youth, Liam, facing the dissapointments of life, and how cruel life can be.

It also is not heart-warming, and it was misleading for the packaging to include that word.

In Sweet Sixteen, I found myself hoping that once Liam's mother came out of prison that his life would get better: instead, the dissapointments kept coming. That happens in life.