Review of Little Birds (2011) by Dave J — 16 Jan 2014

Wednesday, January 15, 2014.

(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 since it raises more questions.

2 out of 4 stars.