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Created Jun 27, 2013 09:28PM PST • Edited May 03, 2023 10:07PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Small town BFFs get into big trouble in this high quality yet overlooked drama about disaffected youth. How disaffected? Both girls are from troubled households, though one has a good head on her shoulders. The other? A “cutter” and Mean Girl extraordinaire. Together they anchor a terrific indie drama.

   Juno Temple plays the Mean Girl, bent on torturing herself and most everyone in her orbit. It’s a startlingly great performance, ugly and sexy at the same time. The movie revolves around her relationships. She and her Mother have mastered the art of saying hurtful things to each other. She’s also mastered the art of guilt-tripping her BFF into doing things for her that she’d never reciprocate. Indeed, everything she does and everything she says is for her.

   The first kiss comes 27 minutes into Little Birds, an important detail in a girls’ coming-of-age movie. Juno Temple’s character meets a sensitive skateboarder with scars of his own. Grace notes like that stud the movie, elevating it from mere exploitation into something approximating young-adult literature.

   Rookie writer-director Elgin James is a name to keep in mind given this exceptionally strong first movie. Hollywood must disagree, as his IMDb filmography shows no sophomore effort in the offing. Pity.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Juno Temple opens the movie nude in the bath, dreaming about drowning. It’s that kind of edgy movie. She goes on to give a masterclass performance in self-absorbed, self-pitying and self-justifying behavior. Young Miss Temple – Think she likes being called that? – is an actress of note. Major note.

   Kay Panabaker is nearly as impressive as her BFF, a pretty girl who gets put down for not being pretty. Looks matter more than brains to this crowd, only Panabaker’s character sees through that. She’s smart and strong, good thing for everybody who matters. Miss Panabaker’s also an actress of note.

   Leslie Mann plays Juno Temple’s Mom, so you have two smoking divas emotionally abusing each other. It’s not clear which is the victim, though each is convinced it’s her. Mann mostly plays it straight in hubby Judd Apatow’s comedies, so is practiced at the art of faux family drama. She delivers it well.

   Kate Bosworth plays her hottie sister, caught in her own domestic hell. Bosworth has a moviestar’s visage and a natural delivery. She’s slumming here, yet helps her career in supporting turns like this, jumping off the screen each time she comes on. A star is a star.

   Neal McDonough and David Warshofsky play the men in Kay Panabaker’s life. McDonough runs a barn where she works, making him the one solid and supportive person in her life. It’s always nice to see McDonough do a straight-up likable role, though you half expect a curve. Warshofsky plays her Father, a broken man albeit not a bad one.

   Kyle Gallner plays the nice guy Juno Temple falls for. Too bad he runs with a bad bunch led by Chris Coy. Gallner is an actor who mostly does horror, but plays like a real guy here. Coy plays horror and indie-drama, here showing his criminal side.

   Let’s not forget the following cast credits.

   • Chopper … Himself
   • 3 Salton Sea Skateboarders
   • 5 Los Angeles Skateboarders

   Keeping it real.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Elgin James qualifies as an auteur for not only writing and directing Little Birds, but even writing and performing most of the songs. He’s made an outstanding film, trenchant and evocative, sensitive and tough, enlightening and frustrating. More please.

    He’s fashioned a classical drama, anchored in a down-and-out town just a couple hours drive from the Gotham of L.A. A pair of mature teens chafe at their lives, especially the shaky parenting guiding them. Touching on the scourge of self-harm (cutting in this case), parents who value their kid’s friendship more than their respect, and even the craven acts of big city runaways, Little Birds punches above its weight, damn near justifying a title change. How about Heavy Hitters instead of Little Birds? It just happens to be about a couple of girls from Nowheresville who find their way to Gotham Gomorrah.

    Random Notes from the Credits

    • Products were provided by a baker’s dozen of swag sources, including Lancôme, Neutrogena, MAC, Bumble & Bumble, Makeup Forever and Strat-Tatts. Given the four featured actresses and the film’s low budget, this may have been necessary to keep the peace.
    • Wardrobe by Vans, Levi’s, Osiris and American Apparel. Yep, sounds right.
    • There were more Producers Wish To Thank names than many action movies have stuntmen.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    “I like him.” “I know you do.” Reads flat, delivers exceptionally well on screen.

13. Music Great 4.0

    Several songs were written by Elgin James, including one titled I will Die Young. Performed by him and The Suicide Gang, they suggest the film’s theme of extreme teen angst.

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.6

    Side-boob is the only nudity, as I recall. But Sex at a mere 2.4 doesn’t cancel out Violence at 2.6 and Rudeness at 2.8. Sordid indeed. The fact that it’s about teens, chalk that up to society these days.

    The brutal violence is seen and unseen, the latter including a girl who is a self-harming cutter. Mercifully we’re only shown the scars on her legs, not her in the act of mutilating them.

17. Sex Titillating 2.4

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Profane 2.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    Two questions about the movie’s underlying reality.

    • Why do some girls cut themselves? Is it only or mostly a female scourge, akin to bulimia? Little Birds offers no answers, albeit it presents the behavior in the context of overall meanness, projected back on the girl herself and outwardly at others. Why so mean? That’s never answered.
    • Why must filmmakers always show military veterans as pitiable creatures? (When they’re not being shown as homicidal.) It’s too easy an out and mars Elgin James’ otherwise laudatory film.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0