Giant Little Ones is a 2018 Canadian drama film, directed by Keith Behrman.[2] The film stars Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello as the parents of a teenage boy (Josh Wiggins), whose lives are upended after their son and a friend are involved in an intimate incident after a party.[3]

Giant Little Ones
Film poster
Directed by	Keith Behrman
Written by	Keith Behrman
Produced by	Allison Black
Starring	Josh Wiggins Darren Mann Taylor Hickson Kyle MacLachlan Maria Bello
Cinematography	Guy Godfree
Edited by	Sandy Pereira
Music by	Michael Brook
Production companies	euclid431 pictures Scythia Films Storyboard Entertainment Sugar Shack Productions
Distributed by	Mongrel Media
Release dates	September 9, 2018 (2018-09-09) (TIFF) March 1, 2019 (2019-03-01) (United States)
Running time	93 mins
Country	Canada
Language	English
Box office	$166,896[1]

The film was shot in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in 2017.[2] It premiered on September 9 at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, and received a limited release in the United States on March 1, 2019.[4] In December 2018, the Toronto International Film Festival named the film to its annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list.[5] Behrman won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film.[6]

Plot

Ray Winter leaves his wife, Carly, for another man. Ray's popular, athletic son, Franky, refuses to talk to his father despite Ray's pleas. Some time later, Franky is about to celebrate his birthday.[lower-alpha 1] His best friend, fellow swimmer Ballas Kohl, pressures Franky to sleep with his girlfriend Priscilla just as Ballas and his girlfriend, Jess, have done. Ballas boasts of having had sex repeatedly. After Franky's birthday party and while intoxicated, Ballas and Franky have a sexual experience with each other. Ballas is terrified that his actions have outed him, and he and his girlfriend begin to spread rumors that Franky acted solely and performed unwanted oral sex while Ballas was sleeping. This results in Priscilla angrily confronting Franky and breaking up with him without allowing him to explain what had really happened.

Ballas’ and Franky’s friendship falls apart in the weeks that follow, with everyone in school believing that Franky is gay. This causes him to drop out of swimming class and spend more time alone with himself. Only his transgender friend Mouse and Ballas’ sister Natasha, who was also branded as an outcast after being sexually assaulted at a party, know the truth about what had happened between the two boys that night and that Franky was asleep while Ballas wasn’t. Natasha and Franky form a close relationship with each other, which angers Ballas and causes him to threaten Franky to stay from his sister.

Ballas tries to make Franky’s life as miserable as possible when he refuses to end his relationship with Natasha. He tries lying to Natasha, saying that Franky is only using her to get what he wants, but she refuses to believe him. When this doesn’t work, Ballas starts to exact his angry threats on Franky. He breaks apart Franky’s bike, but is forced to pay for the damages by his parents. He later confronts Franky outside a convenient store and berates him, beating him up before running away. This results in the police being called, and in front of the cops and his parents, Ballas confesses to everything that he did to Franky, including performing unwanted oral sex on Franky while he was asleep and Ballas was awake. Natasha overhears everything and spreads the truth to everyone at school, resulting in Ballas being branded as an outcast and his girlfriend Jess dumping him.

Franky slowly begins to piece his life back together with the support of Mouse. He also rekindles his relationship with Natasha, much to the shame and regret of his ex-girlfriend Priscilla, who also learned the truth about Franky and realized that she made a terrible mistake in breaking up with him. Franky reconnects with his father, and admits that he is uncertain, as he did not feel uncomfortable during the incident with Ballas. His father, who is gay and only came out long into adulthood, points out that he may not know his full truth yet, but he need not rush to immediately define himself. Through this guidance and the support of his family and friends, Franky finds himself confident in moving forward in life.

Cast

• Josh Wiggins as Franky Winter
• Darren Mann as Ballas Kohl, Franky's lifelong best friend
• Taylor Hickson as Natasha Kohl, Ballas's younger sister
• Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Winter, Franky's father
• Maria Bello as Carly Winter, Franky's mother
• Peter Outerbridge as Nic Kohl
• Niamh Wilson as Mouse, Franky's female friend
• Kiana Madeira as Jess, Ballas' girlfriend and later ex-girlfriend
• Hailey Kittle as Priscilla, Franky's girlfriend and later ex-girlfriend
• Stephanie Moore as Angie Kohl
• Evan Marsh as Connor
• Olivia Scriven as Deanne Winter, Franky’s sister
• Carson MacCormac as Michael, a bullied boy

Critical response

Giant Little Ones received positive reviews. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 93% approval rating, based on 60 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Giant Little Ones puts a complex and refreshingly nuanced spin on the traditional coming of age drama, further elevated by the admirable efforts of a talented cast."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[10]

Writing for CBC Arts in his regular Queeries column on LGBTQ entertainment, Peter Knegt praised the film as part of a rising and necessary trend of honest depictions of teenage sexuality and sexual identity issues.[11] He wrote that the film "feels like something of an antidote to last year's gay teen rom-com Love, Simon, which felt like it barely scratched the surface of what its characters were going through."[11]

References

Notes

Citations

External links

• Giant Little Ones at IMDb
• Giant Little Ones at Rotten Tomatoes

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