Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
pointyfilippa
The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Alasdair Orr
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
SnoopyStyle
It's 1933 St. Louis. Aaron Kurlander (Jesse Bradford) is an imaginative kid in Miss Mathey (Karen Allen)'s class. Christina Sebastian (Katherine Heigl) is the pretty girl in class. He befriends rich classmate Billy Thompson and puts up a front about his family. His friend Lester (Adrien Brody) gets him a job as a caddy. Ella McShane (Amber Benson) is a shy neighbor who likes him and suffers from seizures. Patrolman Burns is the corrupt cruel traffic cop. Doorman Ben uses Aaron to deliver booze to Mr. Mungo (Spalding Gray) who spends time with call girl Lydia (Elizabeth McGovern). His little brother Sullivan is sent to live with their uncle. His mother (Lisa Eichhorn) goes back to the sanatorium for tuberculosis. His domineering father (Jeroen Krabbé) leaves for a job to sell watches. He is left alone having to survive with only his wits.This is an interesting place that Steven Soderbergh has brought the audience to. The many side characters are all great. There are so many of them that the movie relies a lot on its young star to keep it together. Jesse Bradford is a competent child actor and he keeps the character compelling. It's a really tough job and it would have been great for him to have a companion best friend. Adrien Brody is the closest character and should have more screen time. I also would like it to take on a darker tone. This reminds me a bit of Barton Fink and it would be great to have more of that tone.
Geoffrey DeLeons
This film is absent a plot. Since there is really no solid story line, it is just another slice-of-life film. I am somewhat upset and confused that I spent about an hour and a half following this (mostly mute) kid around, waiting for either him to do something major, or for something major to happen to him. Alas, nothing ever happens.Even when the kid (and the director) is presented with something substantial ( a doomed friendship with Ella, played by Amber Benson), the main character and the film fail to seize the moment and create something for us to focus on. How can a producer con a large Hollywood studio into producing a picture with no real story.., and which subsequently loses over six million dollars at the box office? Is it something to do with tax write-offs or contracts?
preppy-3
In the 1933 Depression, Aaron (an impossibly young Jesse Bradford) is left all alone after his brother is sent away, his mother put in a sanitarium and his father has to leave to work for money. We see what the Depression was REALLY like through young Aaron's eyes. Too often the 1930s are romanticized...but not here! It is grim and powerful but there's also some very funny moments and a GREAT happy ending that was (more or less) believable. I read and studied the Depression in school and this movie got everything right--especially about the hell people went through. Also it looks fantastic! They got the cars, clothes, houses and everything right on target. This movie also has an incredible cast. Jeroen Krabbe (faking an American accent pretty well), Lisa Eichorn, Spaulding Grey, Karen Allen and Elizabeth McGovern all have small roles but are great in them, but it's Bradford who holds the film together. He was only 14 when he did this and he's GREAT! He anchors the film and is believable every step of the way. Also look for an unknown Katherine Heigl and future Oscar winner Adien Brody in small roles. This was a hard movie to market and the studio didn't even try. It died pretty quickly. I only caught it by accident on cable and was blown away by how good it is. This is an excellent film and easily one of the best film of the 1990s. A definite must see!
ptcan
This is a beautiful movie about an enterprising young man who survives various hardships during the depression. It has a bitter edge but isn't excessive and brings back tales of my grandmother's of how her family coped during the depression. My grandmother's parents were far more functional than the frail ill mother and the traveling salesman father who basically abandons his child to work out of state. I agree with other comments it hardly seems American because it is so deep without smashing the hammer down on our heads. Even though it is harsh I think it is suitable for older children if nothing more than an abject lesson about how real and difficult life really was. The irony is that America still exists to a lesser degree we just don't see it in the movies or on TV.
