Little Boxes

It tackles topics such as coming of age, sexual exploration, race and class. The acting was pretty good. Had some good cinematic shots and you definitely see the characters develop. The film did have me on my toes at times but there was always some light humour to release the tension. I love how subtle yet impactful some of the moments of emotion were in the film. From the silence, to the cut to black screen with some dialogue still going on. Interesting film to watch. However I do feel that it had the potential to deliver much more. Was missing something, not sure what.

"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.

When I first decided to watch this movie I had to question myself if I wanted to take a chance on yet another film that is build around racial issues. I'm quite frankly a bit tired of the "black family moves to a white racist town" or the "white teacher saves a class in the projects" type of films. Those films is so overdone, and also tend to portray people as if it's still the mid 80's or something.

In this film they kinda fall in the trap with writing the town people as socially awkward, and borderline racist. Which i guess in some cases might fit, but I don't personally find it believable that everyone is like that. On top of that I felt unsatisfied when the movie ended because I just sat there and wondered what I was supposed to get from it. It barely made me laugh, it didn't move me or make me cry, it didn't make me sad or happy, and worst of all it didn't really give me the good-feel either. So i don't know what they actually tried to do with this film, because it can best be described as "meh".

To wrap it up I would like to go back to my topic. It could be so much more. With that I mean it is definitively a good story hiding in this film, and they probably should have made it more about the kid, and write it so that the audience at least get that good-feel or the nostalgic love memories. But as it is right now, I can't really give my recommendations.

Wonderful film...full of realistic, thought-provoking scenes. Very relatable to our everyday experiences. The film explores themes of moving to a new home, racial challenges, coming of age and confronting one's weaknesses. It offers a nice balance between drama, humor and reality. Recommend it for any age, including young adults, who can relate to the young actors and their characters. The music choices are great; the music enhances the story and the visual. The acting--young and old--was spot on! The characters were so believable, that i fell into the story and wholeheartedly went along for the ride! I highly recommend this film!

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.