My Review of "Giant Little Ones"

Giant Little Ones has been on the suggestion list on Crave for quite some time. It didn't really appeal to me because I had never heard of it. Fortunately, it is a Canadian film and it had made a big buzz at the Toronto Film Festival. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into but I was trusting the critics on this one.

This movie starts out with the main character Franky and his best pal Ballas. The two of them are thick as thieves and it just happens to be Franky's birthday. They're all getting ready for a big birthday party at Franky's place. Everyone seems to be in great spirits. Franky and Ballas seem to be very popular at school so everyone's going to be at the party.

Franky's girlfriend plans to have sex with Franky that night and there's a ton of expectations from pretty much everyone. Throughout this first part of the movie they really flesh out the characters and let us know how they tick.

We learn that Franky has a two sisters. One of his sister's doesn't like the fact that he is ignoring their father. Their father had divorced their mother as he had left her for a man. His other sister is starting a transition to become trans-male.

The night of the birthday party goes great. Everyone has a great time but they have to end it early because Franky's mother had come back early from her date. Regardless of this setback the festivities continue but in a smaller scale.

The aftermath of the night had some interesting consequences that put a huge strain on the friendship of Franky and Ballas. This results in some crazy bullying and a realization of who we are really dealing with.

I didn't know if I was going to like this movie but it goes zero to a hundred real quick and I was all in. It's no wonder why this was so critically praised at the Toronto Film Festival. The exploration of each of the main characters is fascinating.

There is a realistic aspect to this movie that help make the movie feel very genuine. I loved the fact that we start learning about each of their backstories as the movie goes on and we realize that some friends were actually really terrible people whereas some villains turned out to be trying to help the whole time.

Franky has a lot of exploration of who he is. Going through adolescence is though enough as it is but to go through the scenario that he did makes things a lot more complicated. He eventually realizes that he has his own faults and after learning to accept who he is he realizes that he can live a happier and more fulfilling life.

For those that are wondering if they would like this movie I guess I would only suggest this movie to those that are interested in character exploration. Each of the characters are going through something and aren't necessarily totally bad. There's a lot of confusion and some people come with confusion a lot differently than others. Some people do bad things and some shut down, we all deal with things differently. I'm glad that they were honest about their characters and didn't paint everything with butterflies.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. I really got into the movie because I really didn't know what to expect. Well... Some of it was kind of predictable but I really didn't know where they were going to go with this movie. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. It was a very enjoyable film to watch. I would watch this movie again if anyone wants to watch it.