Little Birds

This is another one of those movies with a girl that has emotional issues because of superficial problems. And has a friend tagging along. And in movies like this they can be the loyal and righteous friend or the one that is a complete negative influence. In this it's the loyal and righteous friend and the main protagonist Lily Hobart(Juno Temple) is the one that is trying to find acceptance and pleasure. And thus joins up with few troublesome skateboarders. The thing is it's difficult to sympathize with a character like Lily Hobart in this when she has a loving mother and a loyal friend and hasn't been emotionally screwed by other people harming her physically. I can sympathize with Juno Temple's role in "Killer Joe" but not really in this one. Plus after watching "Beasts of the Southern Wild" the problem the protagonist faces is way far from being as bad. She just comes off a uptight selfish girl that uses other people and gets used as well. I don't know but I got kinda numb to these types of movies after a while. These types of movies are watchable in my opinion but just far from being all that entertaining. Some have sorta engaging aspects going for it but not really in this one. Besides certain parts about peer pressure, this one is passable.

5.5/10

Little Birds (2011)

A harrowing movie, a slice of very believable and scary life for two fifteen year olds looking to escape their awkward or dysfunctional families. What they get into, moving from the Salton Sea to L.A. in a stolen truck, is a nightmare for any parent. Yet for the girls there is a mixture of adventure and discomfort.

All of this depends a lot on a great ensemble cast, which is pretty much here. The two girls are terrific--I had just seen Juno Temple in another excellent indie and sought this out. The boys they run into and hook up with are a little wild at first (and then more wild later) and weave into the story with surprising ease.

This is a low budget movie but it makes the most of a series of scenes inside and out that keep it from feeling constrained. The Salton Sea parts are both beautiful an so impoverished they are sad. When the edge of L.A. comes in it's rougher and yet filled with energy. The girls are divided on how the city works on them. Temple's character is exudes confidence, and sometimes has it, too, and so she gets in deeper. The other girl, played by Kay Panabaker, is more morally solid and yet more scared, and she plays a perfect counterbalance to her friend.

Writer and director Elgin James is just starting out here (that's part of what Indie films are all about) and the movie might not soar or show particular originality, but it does hold up pretty well in normal dramatic terms. The sets are very real--gritty and rough, for sure--and the acting matches. It's quite well shot, too, if nothing special is going on--give the editors some of the credit for keeping it fluid.

You wonder by the end what the larger point might be, beyond a very distracting entertainment. There might be a little (a little) sense of "there's no place like home" at work. And there's a kind of buddy movie at work--the two girls being the pals on the road. Mostly it's about how tough some teens have it, and how they want to find ways to survive that surprise their parents (usually singular, parent). It's also a tale of how kids want a lot from everyone and everything--life seems so fertile and large--and how they know so little about how to get it.

So, with vulnerability on their sleeves, these girls are a little bit of all of us. No, we aren't all so fully stupid or careless, but maybe in small ways we are all the same.

Lily Hobart (Juno Temple) is a restless damaged teen desperate to leave her Salton Sea trailer park. Alison Hoffman (Kay Panabaker) is her more reserved best friend. They run away to LA and follow Jesse (Kyle Gallner) and his boys. They get further and further into trouble as their friendship is put to the test.

This is written/directed by first time Elgin James. It's a very solid debut. Juno Temple has carved out a nice niche in the damaged teenager roles. She is probably one of the best at that role right now. Kay Panabaker is one of the smarter actresses, and she fits this role. She's great at the friend role, and she's great as the wet blanket in LA. Leslie Mann has a great maternal feel. Kyle Gallner is the perfect companion to Juno Temple. Overall, the acting fits perfectly in a fairly lightly written movie. It's a well worn genre. It's not new, but it's well done.

A fine opening for a first time director. I saw it specially for Juno Temple and her performance was the major plus point but her co-star attracted to my eyes. I liked Juno Temple very much in 'Dirty Girl' but afterwords she was good, also exposed her body consistently and I disliked it. Sometime we hate someone we admired do like that. She could have been a good actor liked by everybody including family audience if she does not expose much of her skin.

Anyway this movie was good, delivers a fine message and kinda a lesson to youngsters to learn. This was the story of two teenage girls Lily and Alison from a small town. Fifteen, the age of self discovering and curious about everything in the world, to find out what is future and where it will be. These girls are unhappy with their poverty and pollution town, so wanted to runaway. One day they meet the boys from Los Angeles and follows them. What comes to them is not as they expected and theirs response to the circumstance brings the curtain to the movie.

Good story and the movie looked realistic to me. The element about blackmail through social media was one of the highlights of the movie. It was based on actual happenings in everywhere like the movie 'Trust'. I am happy they used it very well for this movie. This independent drama about youngsters mistakes is totally worth seeing.

8/10

(2012) Little Birds DRAMA

Another no plot movie, written and directed by Elgin James, starring Juno Temple as female teen, Lily Hobart living in a mobile home environment, with her best friend Alison (Kay Panabaker), who appear to be about the same age. This mobile resident is located near a supposedly an infected beach, which is why no one is playing around there. Defined as an acting device film, as Lily complains about her mother, Margaret Hobart (Leslie Mann) always trying to steal unsuspecting boyfriends money and so forth. She then strives to leave as soon as she's threatened by some of her former neighbors. And she does that by convincing her best friend to steal a respected man's truck, by the name of Hogan (Neal McDonough) to meet up with some skaters, but are really squatters who also rob and steal unsuspecting people as well, by means of online dating. Kate Bosworth also stars as Bonnie Muller, who's like another one of Lilly's aunts. Speaking as a realist and by looking at the big picture, I never got the sense that the characters are indeed real, since what Lilly and her best friend Alison do seems to be very routine, which it restricts viewers to whatever it gives us, instead of explaining to us about their studies. Or when Lilly first meets those boarders, which Jesse (Kyle Gallner) seemed to be her first boyfriend, and they just happened to meet by chance- and that Lily never found a steady boyfriend when she went to school, or other friends or enemies for that matter, which means that the schooling never even existed. Now, while I appreciate some of those subtle scenes such as babbling along the train tracks with a scene taken from "Stand By Me" I find that I'm unable to identify with any of the characters as a whole, or as being real as the movie raises more questions than it is giving us answers.