A satisfying family drama and a provocative comedy, and for a film that shows how unfortunate easy labels can be, it resoundingly proves its point by not easily being categorized itself.

| Mar 1, 2019

In Little Boxes, there's cause for optimism because Meyer and Howell are doing interesting work that's absolutely necessary and not always easy: interrogating whiteness and the ways it shapes the people of color who encounter it.

| Sep 26, 2017

The greatest error in Little Boxes is that, despite dealing with a very serious and resonant topic, it's essentially harmless. It says nothing new and it's not funny enough to distract from how toothless it reveals itself to be.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Apr 28, 2017

Little Boxes at least acknowledges that messiness in a manner that feels like the filmmakers honestly, if at times clumsily, wrestling with an agonizingly complex issue.

| Original Score: 6.3/10 | Apr 14, 2017

"Little Boxes" offers tame social commentary in a pleasant package.

| Apr 14, 2017

Has good intentions if not the subtlest delivery. Coming in at merely 84 minutes, the film had plenty of room to include more shading of its characters.

| Apr 14, 2017

Interesting, edgy indie drama tackles racism, fitting in.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2017

What keeps their movie watchable is that Lynskey, Ellis and Jackson are completely believable as a loving family unit going through a rough patch concerning their sense of identity and place.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 14, 2017

Countless movies have examined what happens when a country mouse goes to the city; this one shows that leaving a gentrified urban oasis for a small-town world can be just as jolting.

| Apr 13, 2017

I'd like to know what the heck suburbia personally did to screenwriter Annie J. Howell and director Rob Meyer to make them so mad at it.

| Original Score: C | Apr 13, 2017

Rob Meyer's satisfying coming-of-age dramedy examines race relations through the story of an interracial family relocated to Washington State from multicultural Brooklyn.

| Apr 13, 2017

While racist slights remain unfortunately common, Little Boxes doesn't exactly use them to illuminate the nuances of suburban life.

| Apr 12, 2017

The film's default mode is to lazily skewer suburbanites as cartoonishly privileged yuppies.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 10, 2017

Writer Annie J. Howell and director Rob Meyer stack up their woes without making them feel contrived, so when the breakdown comes, it's real, and it's heartbreaking.

| Apr 5, 2017

As perceptive as it is precious and predictable.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 21, 2017

Jackson, Lynskey and Ellis all deliver effortless performances that further illuminate an essential narrative.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 21, 2017

Despite the contrived drama surrounding it, this is a refreshingly uncynical portrait of familial strife.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 25, 2016

Failing to puncture the tension with consistent humor, the self-seriousness of each scene grows increasingly tedious as Little Boxes runs out of stimulating material.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Apr 23, 2016

A tonally wishy-washy movie with conflicts that feel too constructed to ring true and humor that ranges from ineffectually low-key to forced.

| Apr 17, 2016

Even as some of the supporting players and subplots veer toward caricature, the family dynamics at the film's center remain entirely relatable.

| Apr 17, 2016