Giant Little Ones
With the LGBTQ+ culture becoming more and more mainstream, there is a huge influx of films capturing its essence as experienced individually, and this is also the case with Keith Behrman's Giant Little Ones. The film focuses on high school athlete Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins), who begins to experiment with his sexuality – one night, drunk with his best friend, Ballas Koh (Darren Mann). Ballas then turns on Franky, spreading rumours and lies about him throughout their school. Giant Little Ones attempts to illustrate the modern struggles of being queer in high school, and the paradoxical modern mixture of openness and progress with toxic masculinity and shame to varying results
Unlike many others in this genre, Giant Little Ones luckily avoids being overly preachy or contrived for nearly the entire runtime. Due to a mix of impressive performances, from the young mostly unknown cast – and the screenplay also from Keith Behrman – Giant Little Ones uses natural-feeling dialogue to create a cast that not only feel grounded and realistic, but also avoids a lot of cliches.
One of the most refreshing characters of the film is the one of Franky. Way more than a story of a gay teenager coming out and finding his place in High School, this is a story about a young kid experimenting, trying to find himself and how the environment around him hinders this exploration. This is a much more nuanced approach than the one many films take, when trying to explore the modern LGBTQ+ climate.
Despite this fresh and intriguing set up, Giant Little Ones is an overall forgettable feature, struggling to find much to say. Where this basic look at the struggles of homophobia might have been impactful a decade earlier, there is not a single new thesis or conclusion that the film reaches to add something major and valuable to this already established conversation. The message that high school can be a cold and unforgiving place for those trying to find their sexual orientation is far from new, and the film does nothing, with its interesting perspective, to make a new worthwhile point that would leave a real impact on viewers. Giant Little Ones does a good job in retelling this story, but is far from revolutionary or memorable in the bigger scheme of modern LGBTQ+ cinema.
Not only is it disappointing to see the film waste an interesting perspective – the student is in the process of experimenting with his sexuality rather than declaring it to the world – but it also wastes some impressive filmmaking that makes the film really well crafted. The cinematography from Guy Godfree consistently embraces unique angles and shots, making this version of suburbia stand out more than it would have with basic cinematography. Specifically, the film's use of colour is delightful: from the nearly neon blue of a swimming pool, to streaks of bright red falling onto a city from a flare beguile the audience into viewing the film, and its locations, a bigger piece of art than they probably should.
Giant Little Ones is a perfectly competent and impressive film when it comes to the more unique set up and technical elements, but sadly fails to be more. If there is a major positive take away from the film, it is seeing that, both on and off camera, there are some young up-and-coming talents that have proven to be of quality. If given a more captivating plot, they could really produce some incredible pieces of work. For those who haven't been exposed to much LGBTQ+ cinema, Giant Little Ones does have the potential to leave an impact, but for those not new to these stories or someone who has lived their own versions, the film is a passable, yet skippable, cinematic outing.
