Little Boxes

16 July 2017: I see all and support All Interracial movies and t.v shows between men and women. What I wish is that movies would sometimes show Interracial men/women couples as other than just Black & White {African American-Caucasian American}. We need to show mixed race couples of how American really is Not just Black & White couples, but also Hispanic and Caucasian or Asian and African American or African American and East Indian or Middle Eastern as in Israeli or Egyptian Arabs married to a Black or White American. Those mixed couples do exist in real life too.

This on is Not the best Interracial flick, but not that bad. I liked the talented kids the most, young child actress, Oona Laurence is great in her role as Ambrosia and the other young girl who played her friend and young Armani Jackson as "clark" were good. The adults in the cast were okay. Okay for red box or Lifetime channel t.v movie.

Two things that that I did NOT like in this film. One during the scene where the little girl, Ambrosia finds out that Clark's mom is White and she runs off angrily to her room. Anyone over the age of 10 can clearly see when a person is obviously Biracial if his or her skin town is very light, but with other features such as hair texture. Anyone can clearly see that Clark is Not all Black.

I am fed up and tired of seeing movies where a Biracial {black-white} kid or adult is only referred to only as Black. It takes two adults (man & woman} to make a baby and if one of the adults is of another race then the child is of both races and that is in the DNA. Biracial people are Not just one race, they are both races.

Oona's role as Ambrosia is very smart, outgoing and precocious for her age. So she should Not have been shocked to find his mom is Caucasian/White. Also, he did not act like a kid from an all black poor street ghetto with bad English full of street slangs. Clark's diction is proper. It just did not make any sense for Ambrosia to freak out and get angry because he is Biracial.

A boy his age is going to be curious about the opposite sex and since his dad nor mom had the "Talk" with him yet, he is finding out on his own. So his mom should Not have been so shocked when she sees a bikini magazine or poster on his wall. It is just time to give the boy the "Talk".

Next thing, there is No way a kid his age should be having a girlfriend at his age. He could have a crush on a girl, maybe. Perhaps, he was just bragging to his cousin or not when he ran off angrily after the white mom scene. Over all, I give this film one thumb up and a 7. A much better young Interracial Love story is "Everything-Everything" starring Amandla Stenberg.

Little Boxes attempts to explore and unearth these certain racial frictions and casual racism that something like the film Get Out has done amazingly. The efforts are appreciated, and there are certainly good scenes (Mack's interactions with that 'writer') but the film never quite knows what to do with the things it brings up. It just lets them hang there uncomfortably, something that an ignorant audience can just brush past quickly.

This has comedy elements in it and is socially aware. Although some may think this does cling on to cliches too much. Whatever you may think this does seem to be an accurate depictal of the troubles and worries of raising a child. The influences the kid is under, the stress and issues parents have. It's anything but overloaded though. It does have music in it, that some may find offensive, especially in connection with young kids.

But it's not like this is far from reality. And the movie does not offer you solutions in the traditional sense or any of that stuff. So while the cliche argument may be true, you can't fault the movie for being too sensitive and "cute". The acting is really good and there is a lot to love of the movie

"You are so interesting." (White townie to new black resident)

Little Boxes is a little film that wants to be more than it is. While it would like to be a quirky tale of an interracial family moving from NYC to white Washington State, it's a slow moving story of a few dysfunctions on the part of the rural town faced with the black and white presence and awkwardly responding to it.

The white mother, Gina, played underwhelming by Melanie Lynskey, accepts a tenure-track job at Rome College with perks her black writer husband, Mack (Nelsan Ellis), appreciates if only because his second book is taking a great deal of time. Eleven-year- old son, Clark (Armani Jackson), is experiencing a new life with a couple of 11-year-old girls, nothing grand, just the kind of pre-teen exploration that seems awfully tame from my jaded point of view.

The meaty issues that hover over the biracial motif are meekly treated by a few pedestrian lines such as a young girl exclaiming the town needs a black: "We like totally needed a black kid. This town is SO white!" Or about husband a neighbor says, "If you close your eyes you can't even tell he's black." The mold hiding in the family's house is hardly a hidden metaphor. Embarrassing stuff

The only excitement in this turgid melodrama is when Clark gets in trouble for boyish misdeeds, odd actually for such a nice kid. I'm trying not to mention the four female professors at bad karaoke while over drinking on their regular lunch break. Even worse Gina is criticized for getting "sloppy" in a small town--a definite no no and a signal of intolerance almost unheard of in Brooklyn.

Clearly Little Boxes (hmm, people trapped? town?) is not in the suburban satirical league of Ice Storm and American Beauty. Even in the final act, a resolution occurs so quickly as to be unbelievable. But I'm not going to spoil one of the only spirited parts of the film.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the characters in this film, and the actors portraying them seem to do a good job. There are some thought provoking moments, but overall I found this to be quite a mundane movie.

It lacked significant; excitement or action or drama or intrigue or suspense; to engage the viewer.

Maybe it would be more interesting for those who can relate to the story-line, but that's not me, so I cannot comment from that perspective. Or it might appeal to art house film goers.

Ever the optimist, I watched it to the end, but could have easily fallen asleep as my initial interest waned after about 20 or 30 minutes in.