Sweet Sixteen

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Sixteen: A young man facing a tough life
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.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible movie
Review: This is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long while. It's just incredible, the actors were great and the story was very realistic. If you want something great and different, this is the movie for you, it's a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading Description
Review: This movie has one of the misleading descriptions (written by it's American distributor?) that I have ever read. It's not a criticism of the film itself, but I just wish that film companies could be more honest in their descriptions. I suppose if they wrote an accurate synopsis of this film, then very few people would have seen it. Here's the description, verbatim, on the copy I rented:
"Martin Compston, William Ruane, Annmarie Fulton and Michelle Abercromby star in this heartwarming coming-of-age film, directed by Ken Loach, about a rough-and-tough Scottish teen who wants to create a home for himself and his mother ... literally. When his mom is finally released from prison, Liam (Martin Compston) sets out to raise the money that will buy their dream house."

OK, what that description doesn't tell you is that Liam raises the money by selling drugs, that there's nothing "heartwarming" about the story whatsoever (I think a better word is "chilling"), and that the movie is not a coming-of-age tale, but a cinema-verité look at the drug and underworld culture of postindustrial urban Scotland. It's not a bad film, but it's sometimes gratuitously depressing and dark. If you like really, really dark films about the seedy underbelly of life where there are no heroes and no happy endings, then this movie may be for you. But, don't go by the description, or you will definitely be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading Description
Review: This movie has one of the misleading descriptions (written by it's American distributor?) that I have ever read. It's not a criticism of the film itself, but I just wish that film companies could be more honest in their descriptions. I suppose if they wrote an accurate synopsis of this film, then very few people would have seen it. Here's the description, verbatim, on the copy I rented:
"Martin Compston, William Ruane, Annmarie Fulton and Michelle Abercromby star in this heartwarming coming-of-age film, directed by Ken Loach, about a rough-and-tough Scottish teen who wants to create a home for himself and his mother ... literally. When his mom is finally released from prison, Liam (Martin Compston) sets out to raise the money that will buy their dream house."

OK, what that description doesn't tell you is that Liam raises the money by selling drugs, that there's nothing "heartwarming" about the story whatsoever (I think a better word is "chilling"), and that the movie is not a coming-of-age tale, but a cinema-verité look at the drug and underworld culture of postindustrial urban Scotland. It's not a bad film, but it's sometimes gratuitously depressing and dark. If you like really, really dark films about the seedy underbelly of life where there are no heroes and no happy endings, then this movie may be for you. But, don't go by the description, or you will definitely be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Where Have All the Flowers Gone When There Is No War?
Review: Where have all the flowers gone long time ago? When will they ever learn??

We don't need to be Scottish to know the portrayal here is hauntingly true, for human nature is all the same everywhere at least for the last thousand years or so.

Liam has not just broken his sister's heart but has obviously upset the hearts of all those seeing this film. It's not just because of his pain endurance capacity, nor his stubborn courage, but rather his legitimate or even noble idea to rebuild his family. His boundage with his mother is understandably strong: his bigger sister, being a young single mother herself and obviously a victim herself, knew more about life and has learn not to expect anything from her mother. But Liam was still in his puberty, barely 15...

Do we blame him for the fact that he didn't have any proper unbringing save some vivious beatings on and off, or that he doesn't know enough about morals and values when his hunger for the love of his mother and a normal family takes precedence? Well, the film is not saying that is the norm, or that all lower class folks there are all like him. Far from it, quite a proportion of them as depicted in the film are charmingly decent, which in balance makes this movie so convincing and so moving. Even Liam himself possess some nobility that is apt to make most of us feel ashamed; even his best pal, another victim of similar cirsumstances--so real and so vulnerable and mischivious-- is not evil at all...

The violence, though punchingly real, is not really excessive. Everything occassion serves a point. And as a matter of fact, it's the realistic approach that make this film so real and so absorbing and as such a huge success.

The views from this quiet part of Scotland by the seaside are great. The cast is excellent, not just because of good acting and good directorship but also due the fact that there isn't any big name or familiar faces here that would distract us from seeing what is being depicted in this quiet quarter of the world or from the events which are gnawing your heart. The rhythm of the movie is fast and yet neither the trees nor the forest have got out of the hand: there isn't a minute that you are likely to get bored.

This is defintely one of the best films one can come across recently. Highly recommended.