SMALL FACES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
From the director of A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE and THE PLAYBOYS, Gillies Mackinnon's SMALL FACES is another drama of troubled, working class, Scottish youths. Since I recently had the bad luck not to like another Scottish working class movie, TRAINSPOTTING, it was with trepidation that I went to see this one.
My review of TRAINSPOTTING was considered a sacrilege on the Internet and created quite a flurry of diatribes. Most were along the lines of I was stupid not to like their favorite film or stupid because I got one character mixed up in one scene, and being stupid, I was, a priori, not worthy of publishing the review. So much for the value of contrary opinions. Maybe next time, I'll take a poll and see what I supposed to like before composing my review.
At any rate, SMALL FACES is a frequently frightening, but always moving and poignant show which does get a thumbs up from me. I can not speak for its degree of realism, but the script by Billy and Gillies MacKinnon is certainly convincing. This is a tragic show with an excellent performance by Ian Robertson as the MacLean family's youngest son Lex. Although he does not say a whole lot in the show, even without speaking Robertson can convey a wide emotional range.
Set in 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland, Lex lives in cramped quarters with his older brothers Alan (Joseph McFadden) and Bobby (J. S. Duffy) and with his widowed mother Lorna (Clare Higgins). Although Alan's wall is full of his paintings and he shows great promise as an artist, more typical of the area and time is Bobby who spends his time hanging out with a local gang run by Charlie Sloan (Garry Sweeney).
Lex is one confused and troubled kid who has some artistic skills himself. Most of all, however, he wants to be liked and spends more time trying to figure out what others want him to be than be himself. His attempts at running around with the bigger boys get him into a lot of trouble. When he goes with them to peak in on an artist's nude model, the boys push him in the room by himself where the artists laugh at him, and the model turns out to be a fat guy in a jockey strap. Lex is extremely embarrassed.
Contrasted against the film's tragic theme is the mother's warmth. She flips through examples of great artist's paintings, flashcard style, and asks her sons who painted this or that. She has a great voice, and her soulful Gaelic singing at family gatherings is something I would have liked to have heard a lot more of.
Although the film is in English and not Gaelic, the thickness of the Scottish accent may cause you to miss some lines. As a lover of the cadence of the melodic Scottish tongue, I did not mind since the language has always sounded almost like singing to my ears.
Like most tragedies, bad luck is an ingredient. Lex takes an air gun and fires into the distance where he expects to hit nothing, but it happens to injure soccer player Malky Johnson (Kevin McKidd), a maniac and a leader of a rival gang to his brother's. I remember as a boy firing a friend's BB gun for the first time. Although I aimed at a window far away, I did not expect to hit it. Well, I did so I had to spent the money I had been saving for my own BB gun to repair the window. I learned a valuable lesson and gave up on the idea of ever becoming a gun owner.
Many characters in this intimate and sad show seem about to explode. Sometimes they do and the result is bloody violence. Gang members hit each other with pipes and with bricks, and the blood flows freely. Gangs want members who can be "mental." Mental members are those who when told to kill will do it without asking any questions.
The music (John Keane) features the theme song "Keep on running. Keep on hiding," which seems so appropriate to the almost hopeless environment into which these kids are born. It is also a high energy song with a heavy beat which goes well with the high energy of the picture.
The cinematography by John de Borman is fairly straightforward except for the scenes of the desolate wasteland that surrounds the high rise tenements where one of the gangs lives. Borman uses sharp color and dark clouds to give it a surreal feeling. Very ominous as if the grim reaper is just about to arrive.
SMALL FACES runs 1:48. It is rated R for gory violence and some bad language. This is a serious film that would be fine for serious teenagers. Although this show of gang violence is not exactly the sugarcoated one from WEST SIDE STORY, it nevertheless deserves to be seen so I recommend it. It is a fairly depressing show so it is not for everyone, but it gets ** 1/2 from me.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: September 23, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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