It's the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act 'more black,' he fumbles to meet expectations, while his urban intellectual parents Mack and Gina also strive to adjust to small-town living. Equipped for the many inherent challenges of New York, the tight-knit family are ill prepared for the drastically different set of obstacles that their new community presents, and soon find themselves struggling to understand themselves and each other in this new suburban context.
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Touches You
Good movie but grossly overrated
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
The acting in this movie is really good.
If you live in Washington State, you'll immediately recognize that this isn't the Washington State you live in . . . it seems more like a New Yorker's fantasy of what it must be like to live in small town Washington State (where I actually do live in small town).Our town is racially and culturally diverse, not the White suburbia depicted here. That big departure from reality (as well as the fact that the film appears to be filmed in and commenting on life in all white New York suburb) just undercut the movie for me.
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
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.
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.