Little Fugitive (2006)
Publicerat av lucas4you den maj 23, 2009
Director: Joanna Lipper
Release year: 2006
Genre: Drama
Country: US
Awards: Certificate of excellence (Brooklyn International Film Festival)
Plot Summary: This is a remake of the film ”Little Fugitive” from 1953, directed by Joanna Lipper, who also directed the documentary ”Inside out: Portraits of children” (1997). Joanna Lipper, who is also the writer of this remake, has managed to catch a glimpse of the sometimes harsh environment in which children are growing up in present day US. The story is about the two brothers, Lenny and Joey, who are living with their single and underpaid, hard working mother. With their father spending time in prison, the brothers have to depend on each other. The older brother, Lenny, played excellently by Nicolas Martí Salgado, is not always willing to take care of his younger brother Joey, played by David Castro (born 7 Feb 1996). One day Lenny decides to get rid of Joey for a while, with unexpected consequences.
Evaluation: Joanna Lipper´s remake of the ”Little Fugitive” is a nice and well written story, with a soundtrack well adapted to the film, and with raher good actors in general, especially Nicolas Martí Salgado, playing Lenny. Some of the side characters are not that good and some effort could have been made in finding better actors to those parts. There are also a few stereotypes in the film that don´t have any place in such a good film. The director of the film ”Dog days of summer” , Mark Freiburger, have a few things to learn from this film´s cinematography, which is much better with different camera angles and is here for example actually focusing into the characters at times. In turn, Joanna Lipper has a few things to learn from the Russian filmmakers, who as usual are miles ahead of US directors in their capability to create exciting and touching coming of age films.
Where to find it: I found this film at CVMC.net, but it´s also available at for example amazon.com.
Stars: 7 stars out of 10.
* Has anyone else seen this film and what did you think about it?
* Do you have any other favourite US coming of age films?
Let me know with a comment!
skykid sade
I haven`t seen this one – nether the original . What it strikes me about it – is that it comes from the US and seem like a realistic film and this is rare for movies produced in that country .
What kind of stereotypes you refer to ?
Also I got interested in that documentary “Inside out: Portraits of children” – will look for more information on it.
lucas4you sade
There will soon be a short review of the documentary as well. You´re right about ”Little Fugitive” that this film is much more like many Spanish coming of age films in the way it´s written and photographed. At the same time you can´t get rid completely of the US touch to it, which is why I can´t give it more than 7 stars, and perhaps it´s even then a bit overrated just because I was surprised of it´s quality being a US coming of age film. I won´t get into the stereotypes because it will spoil some parts of the film.
* Has anyone else seen this film and what did you think about it?
* Do you have any other favourite US coming of age films?
Let me know with a comment!
Thomas sade
First of all, thanks lucas4you and skykid for your wonderful websites! Found a lot of great movies there, and I’m very thankful for that.
I just watched Little Fugitive and I love it. The story might be a bit strange at times, but I love the acting of Nicolas Salgado and how he portayes the change into a caring brother who would do anything to stay together with his little brother and take care of him. Very touching.