At its best, Little Men swings the viewer from the small, important signs of young friendship to the uncomfortable and conflicting economic interests of adults.

| Dec 1, 2023

This is not a Disney movie with a teary resolution and all sins forgiven. Sachs is more interested in the nuances of relationships [and] the power of childhood friendship...

| Apr 8, 2023

The film's revelatory performances are turned in by Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 14, 2020

Sachs' and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias' ability to imbue a simple story about a couple of tween boys bonding over video games with such depth of subtext is breathtaking.

| Jan 15, 2020

While only an hour and a half long, Little Men is packed full of meaning and emotions.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 27, 2019

Sachs thrives on capturing the moments when a public facade morphs into a private epiphany.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2019

It may not awe or surprise but it's a lovely bittersweet experience and provides a lot of talking points.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 13, 2019

Little Men is an unhurried, very human film that bemoans the adult circumstances that intrude on childhood, all the while acknowledging that these events contribute to the adults we eventually become. It is a great, lovely, enjoyable film.

| Feb 3, 2019

Anyone thinking of making movies would be wise to watch the work of Ira Sachs, which are studies in simplicity that yield such rich rewards. His latest, "Little Men" is no exception.

| Dec 14, 2018

For all the hustle and bustle on the streets, Ira Sachs is able to find a moment of quiet reflection in the hearts and minds of those who walk them daily.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 1, 2018

Michael Barbieri [is an] absolute revelation. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 31, 2018

"Little Men" is able to achieve a balance between youth idealism, optimism, and untainted friendship with adult complications, classism, socioeconomic bias, and so on.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 22, 2018

This story exists in a colder version of New York City, where life experience can forever numb the heart. Barbieri's raging bull of a performance is a permanent reminder that it doesn't have to be this way.

| Aug 22, 2018

The film is quiet but vibrant, and Ira Sachs does a lovely job coaxing images to life out of stillness, and tenderness out of situations that might seem barren of it.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 8, 2017

[Little Men is] full of delicacy and emotional detail. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2017

There are lovely moments but the end result lacks the revelation and, indeed, the resolution to find a commercial audience. A pity given all the hard work involved.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2017

There's no easy resolution to the story, and Sachs doesn't try to impose one. Instead, he offers a wistful coda in which Life, inevitably, goes on.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 11, 2017

Little Men builds gradually and honestly, eavesdropping on real conversations tinged with anger and sometimes bitterness.

| Aug 29, 2017

Little Men jangles with warmth and loss, and if it tells a story about New York we've heard many times before, the story it tells about childhood - about how people turn a corner and vanish - stings at least as much as it sings.

| Aug 28, 2017

Ira Sachs's lean but potent film is the kind of story that works wonderfully well on its own.

| Aug 18, 2017