Sweet Sixteen
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Ukraine, 2002
De Ken Loach
Scénario : Paul Laverty
Avec : Martin Compston, Michelle Coulter, Annmarie Fulton
Durée : 1h46
Sortie : 01/01/2002
Liam is sixteen, his mother’s in jail and he hates his stepfather. In short, his life sucks. He dreams of a better world and makes a living out of schemes, most of them illegal.
DON’T LET YOUR SON LOAF AROUND THE STREETS
After two rather clumsy movies, Bread and Roses and The Navigators, Ken Loach is back on the right tracks with Sweet Sixteen. As one of the fathers of English social cinema, Loach hasn’t changed a single line in his political speech. He carries on filming the disadvantaged people of his country. Opting this time for a sharp documentary point of view, he avoids the usual battle against the mighty State and concentrates on the lost youth of a teenager too smart to accept the gloomy prospect of his future. In Sweet Sixteen, quite an ironic title, he follows the steps of the restless and aggressive Liam, with his cap crammed on his head. School is a distant memory to him, now busy wandering in the dark streets of Scotland. He makes a living out of little traffics with is friend Paintball in order to give a better life to his mother jailed under drug charges. Doing so he increasingly enters the sombre world of delinquency.
MY LITTLE ENTERPRISE
Martin Compson really carries the movie with his stunning performance. Rich with memories from Kes, probably Loach’s masterpiece, Sweet Sixteen is a real success. With a sober thus efficient directing, Ken Loach expresses the doubts and yearnings of his main character. Liam, an ordinary young man, is desesperatly looking for love around him but always ends up dealing with the violence of his hateful stepfather. Like often in his movies, the best part lies with the family scenes, quiet moments that foreshadow melodramatic storms. Awarded in Cannes, Paul Laverty’s script suffers from easy turns inherent in these kinds of stories. Indeed, between unconvincing mob guys and the all too systematic bad luck that accumulates on his characters, Ken Loach is trying too hard to make us cry to provoke emotion. This said he gives us in the end the wonderful portrait of an authentic “Rebel without a cause” and introduces us to a promising young actor.
