Little Criminals

This film considers people, most especially children, living at or beyond the margins of society. It is a worthy companion to Bunuel's "Los Olvidados". The central character, Des, is an 11 year old boy, the leader of a group of delinquents. From the outset, he is loathsome and (seemingly) without any redeeming value. The viewer's reaction to this character is disturbing; how can you hate an 11 year old. The story follows Des through one vicious episode after another. Slowly, ever so subtly, the little boy inside the monster is revealed, and circumstances which have created the monster examined.

The young man who plays Des is brilliant. It is impossible to look away from him, however horrific or painful his behavior. The supporting performances are also fine, especially the step father and social worker characters.

The screenplay is masterful; there is a rythm of explosive violence and anger mixed with small subtle hints of humanity that ultimately leaves the viewer moved in different, conflicting directions simultaneously. Ultimately, no pat answers are provided.

This is a disturbing movie. It should be seen.

'Little Criminals' has to be one of the most depressing films I've ever seen; more so when I consider that, in reality, there must be thousands of children out there condemned to lives of crime and misery as a result of their home situations.

The film revolves primarily around two eleven-year-olds boys named Cory and Des whose extra-curricular activities involve robbery, violence, vandalism, smoking and drugs. On the whole, Cory is a decent child who is just acts out because he feels displaced his step-father and half-siblings. He is sucked into the world of juvenile crime in the hopes of feeling 'cool' but realises the full ramifications of his actions when things go too far and, luckily, he has a family to protect him. Des is another story. It would be too easy to hate him from the onset because he behaves like a vile little monster but only through watching the film do we see a different side to him. He's a neglected, miserable child who has never had one happy moment in his short life. And, deep down, there is a part of him that is still very childlike and desperate for someone to reach out and redeem him. He's a boy who could have lead a well-adjusted, productive life had he been raised by loving parents who actually cared about, guided and disciplined their son.

The quality of the child actors was just excellent. Myles Ferguson, who tragically died just five years after appearing in this film, was able to portray Cory's descent into crime in a way that makes the audience identify how easily a child can be led astray. But it is Brendan Fletcher who steals the show. He depicts Des' hard edge and dark emotions while retaining a sense of vulnerability and childish desperation in the character. He leaves you feeling a conflict between condemning Des as irredeemable and wanting to help this child climb to a better future.

There is no happy ending in this film but it does leave you pondering many thoughts long after the credits have gone by. Perhaps if Canada had a lower age of criminal responsibility, Des and his friends could have been arrested earlier and given the therapy they needed. While I do believe some child criminals deserve to be locked up for a good few decades because they have gone just too far for justice to take second place to rehabilitation (the two ten-year-old British boys who tortured, abused and murdered two-year-old James Bulger fall into this category), reflecting on Des' situation leaves me realising that juvenile detention is not the best solution for all children who commit crimes. Some can be saved if intervention is given early enough.

It's just sad that even in the twenty-first century many of those children who can be save fall still through the cracks of and go on to meet the fate of becoming adult criminals or, worse, premature death.

Like many others I suspect, I was flipping channels when I caught 'Little Criminals' just a few minutes into it. I am not one to be mesmerised by idle amusements. If I am to be moved, I need to be unwittingly skewered by the art in question. And I don't hesitate to call this art. At the centre of the remarkable heft of this movie is the thing that initially grabbed me by my slacks from the start: the weight of the central child's performance. It's an astounding one. Fifteen seconds of it prevented me from absent mindedly flipping on. It's one of the most memorable performances I have ever seen, and the fact that it is a child delivering it soon leaves one's awareness as can only happen when watching the most truthful of actors.

It's the story of a child being raised in a rough neighbourhood without anyone to turn to for support or solidity, least of all his own mother. Initially the fact that such a menacing figure can come in the shape of an eleven year old catches off guard, but the performance is way more than the immature posturings of a brattish child actor. This one has real depth. As you delve deeper into his circumstances, you watch a broad palette paint a character with real pathos. His gang of lawless friends simply facilitate his escape from the inner demons he attempts to elude, but which he returns to as we all must, both within his soul and symbolically drawn on the wall of his little ritualistically kept hide-away. And as his life begins to spiral ever downwards, one attempts to blame many groups for such tragedy, parents, teachers, social services - but in the end, one knows that sometimes this is just the way life goes, that there are always those who get lost between the cracks.

The supporting cast do the main performance of the 'Des' character justice too, and there's an uncredited cameo by a pre-hype Sandra O which leaves me feeling that of all the low budget flicks struggling actors are forced to remember with irritation, for Sandra this is not one of them. It's sensitively directed and the soundtrack is an edgy alternative lineup with Portishead and Radiohead among others, echoing the troubled vibrations of the lost souls it accompanies.

See this film, it's like a beautiful album song that those who don't look very hard miss, and those who find add to their artistic shrine to themselves.

One of the most memorable film experiences I have ever witnessed. Myles Ferguson makes a promising debut.

The real star though, is eleven year old Brendan Fletcher who gives an unbelievable performance for one so young. I have worked with children like Des, and I cannot believe how accurately Fletcher portrays Des.

This one surely deserves a far wider audience and a global DVD release.

Rarely do I find a film so moving!

This film had me in tears towards the end and I have had a life that began a bit like Des's so social dramas' etc don't really affect me as though it might some people who have lived privileged or comfortable lives because i analyse but don't often become emotional through watching a film like i did with this excellent creation from Stephen Surjik and its' writer Dennis Foon and i will be trying to contact them to tell them myself (Never felt like doing that before!).

I live in the UK and so my childhood didn't involve firearms, well not until I was 17 because they are quite rightly a lot harder to come by than in Canada, even then I discarded the pistol I brought after threatening somebody for running over a dog and would never own one again, I am now 39.

This film had so many other parallels though that it was almost traumatic to watch and see how it mirrored myself, it was definitely painful at times as my stomach felt like somebody had just kicked me in it. Because of that I would have to say that it is one of the most powerful films I have ever seen, period.

The ending is tragic because of the way he isolated his self from the only person he felt he could trust will leave many who can identify with the film, numb. It did me.

The character as myself was talented and probably very intelligent, I myself have an I.Q. of 142 but for years as a kid officials thought I was a retard and a write off because of the suffering in the familial environ and the fact I had disengaged and this comes through in the film when all the Police want to do is lock the little guy up but like all young kids, really needed to be understood not treated as though a criminal, as does the lack of permanence when he began to trust somebody when taken into care and although the film doesn't get into his future (I don't want to give too much away.) I know that is what it is like when one is moved through the care system and forming a bond in an environ where nobody actually cares that much at all as they are philanthropist, yes, but only doing a job at the end of the day, that betrayal and lack of permanent bonding with adults stays with you as a deep footprint. It is something that affected this lad, Des, profoundly when he wanted to stay where he had bonded with an adult he felt he could trust.

I highly recommend this film to anybody interested in socio-dynamics, especially because although set in Canada I can say the dynamics are universal because of the way it mirrored my own.

The guys who made this film did a really good job in hitting home subtleties in a powerful way.

To answer the previous review. Remember it? I shall find it hard to forget because in a way I lived it, even looked a bit like Des when i was a kid!!!

Sincerely.

Paul. AKA DELTAPAN