“Little Men,” from gay filmmaker Ira Sachs, is another absorbing duet — after the filmmaker’s “Keep the Lights On” and “Love Is Strange” — that follows two men in New York City. The film opens Sept. 2 at the Ritz at the Bourse.
Jake (Theo Taplitz), a sensitive teen, and Tony (Michael Barbieri), a gregarious, budding actor, become fast friends when Jake’s family moves into the apartment above the dress shop Tony’s mother, Leonor (Paulina Garcia), runs. However, when Jake’s father, Brian (Greg Kinnear), an actor, is pressured to raise Leonor’s rent, the conflict between the adults changes the relationship between the boys.
The magic of Sachs’ film is the attentiveness to the palpable bond that develops between the two “little men.” He captures the rhythms of the boys’ lives and the easygoing nature of their friendship — how each finds something of value in the other.
“Tony sees a friend, an artist, someone who has some of what he wants in Jake; he’s a playmate, a mentee, someone he can teach,” the filmmaker said in a recent phone interview. “Tony gives Jake, an inherently curious boy, access to all these worlds, and Jake has a life that looks good to Tony.”
The relationship between the boys harkens back to Sachs’ excellent first film, “The Delta,” which depicted the relationship between a young white Southern teen and an older half-Vietnamese man who becomes his lover.
“There’s a lot in Tony-Jake’s relationship and ‘The Delta,’” Sachs acknowledged. “In that film, the Vietnamese character says, ‘If I wasn’t gay, would you know me?’ In childhood, you cross lines that you can’t when you’re older. You have access. Tony brings Jake into his world.”
“Little Men” pivots on how the conflict between the adults intrudes on the world of the two boys. The issues of money and class get in the way of the “pure” relationship between the boys. Sachs understands that his lovely film, about real estate and relationships, is not commercial, but he wears that badge proudly.
“I respond to what I feel and the stories I am interested in telling. The issues of class, race and sexuality speak to me. I’m interested in those questions, and sexuality, race and class define character as well as create drama. If you are attentive to the world with that particular viewpoint, those are the stories you find. I’m not attuned to market forces. Individually, I’ve spent half my life to create opportunities for LGBT artists to make work that is not for profit: queer art. Capitalism doesn’t value our stories. That means you have to find other reasons and possibilities.”
He added, “‘Little Men’ is a queer film. I’m the filmmaker. You talk about a ‘queer’ film or a ‘not queer’ film. The eye of the filmmaker is a gay man, and that is specific to me. I’m Jewish, gay, a father, 50, well-educated and I live in New York. How do I feel as a gay man in a heterosexual film industry? How valuable are our stories? There’s an alienation that one feels whatever identity you have. I’m interested in liberating those things.”
Sachs said he’s been asked to describe what one word is meaningful to him as an artist, and he settled on “permission.”
“To take risks, and be fully myself around subject and form … Another filmmaker, Andrea Arnold, said her word was ‘surrender.’ That’s interesting to me. Letting go comes with maturity. You trust instincts and systems more than you maybe trust ideas. People respond to the maturity around how the story is told. There’s a rigor but it’s more relaxed.”
As a father himself, Sachs may have made “Little Men” as a response to the pressures of parenthood.
“My kids are 4, so I’m seeing the burgeoning creation of youth. I’m seeing the moment between infant and child. The hardest thing is to have distance on your kids and let them become who they are. But you want to save them from pain.”
One of the ways Sachs explores the parent/child relationships in “Little Men” is through Brian, who moves to Brooklyn after the death of his father and becomes a possible mentor to Tony. Brian grows and changes the most over the course of the film.
“The characters are trying to be who they want to be in the eyes of another. Each of them fails in their expectations for themselves. In the last act, they become closest to who they are most essentially, and more comfortably. Brian is a little man who becomes a bigger man. He accepts himself and his failures.”
Sachs added wistfully, “How we feel against our parents is very key to gay men, disappointing your parents. Children inherently disappoint their parents, and parents disappoint their kids.”
“Little Men” won’t disappoint viewers, though. This is a lovely, observant film.