Hard Little Man

An 11 year old boy (Ben) has been excluded from school for rough behaviour. Unable to get time off work his mother leaves him outside in their garden to avoid him causing trouble. However the boy finds ways of amusing himself.

One of the short film entered into the orange Short Film Award 2002. This short takes the line of a gritty social drama in miniature and the whole film is set in the garden outside the kid's house. We see him acting tough and play fighting even though he is by himself. The short running time doesn't stop us getting into the film and detail is passed on by the smallest of things well.

However the short doesn't fully explain how this boy got to be this way or give enough detail of his situation. What it does do is provide a dig at the school for expelling rather than helping him – only serving to drive him further away as his mother cannot cope with him on her own. The child actor is good and manages to give out a lot with looks etc – in fact he pretty much carries this on his own.

Overall the film may fall into an easily marked genre but it's still very good. At first look it's very simple and seems aimless, but a closer look and a greater awareness of the detail and this becomes much better.