Franky Winter has long been best friends with his high school classmate, Ballas Kohl, much like their parents, Carly and Ray Winter and Angie and Nic Kohl, have been friends. Ray though is now the odd person out since the recent divorce when he realized he was in love with a man, his current partner Brendan. Franky and Ballas are among the popular group of students, and are on the school swim team together, Ballas being the team captain. While Ballas has just started a sexual... (Full plot summary below)
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Franky Winter has long been best friends with his high school classmate, Ballas Kohl, much like their parents, Carly and Ray Winter and Angie and Nic Kohl, have been friends. Ray though is now the odd person out since the recent divorce when he realized he was in love with a man, his current partner Brendan. Franky and Ballas are among the popular group of students, and are on the school swim team together, Ballas being the team captain. While Ballas has just started a sexual relationship with Jessica, Franky in turn could have his choice of any girl - at least according to the scuttlebutt provided to him by his friend Mouse, a boy trapped in a girl's body, from what she overhears in the girls' washroom. But Franky has chosen to date Cil (Priscilla), they planning to have their first sexual encounter the night of his seventeenth birthday party. Franky's first was almost Ballas' younger sister, Tash, who has just returned to school following "the incident" for which she is now labeled a slut and she is now sneaking alcohol to cope. When Franky and Cil's planned post-party sexual encounter falls through at the last minute, Franky and Ballas end up having a drunken bros' night out after the party, which leads to the start of a sexual encounter between the two of them. Word of this encounter begins to circulate among their classmates. Franky is painted as the gay one and is shunned by his so-called friends, including Cil and Ballas, because of it. In the process, Franky not only has to address his own sexual feelings in their entirety, but also the homophobia he displays against his father, with whom Franky chooses not to have much of a relationship.
Leave your thoughts about Giant Little Ones.
| Movie NationRoger MooreIt’s all a bit on-the-nose, but writer-director Keith Behrman keeps it topical and touching, even if he never quite transcends prioritizing that topicality. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliThere’s something enormously refreshing about the openness and honesty found in Keith Behrman’s coming-of-age film, Giant Little Ones. |
| Original-CinLiam LaceyApart from a few eye-roll moments, Giant Little Ones is redeemed from coming across like a progressive after-school special by the authenticity of performances, particularly of the young actors and a refreshing open-endedness about the fluidity of sexual behaviour. |
| The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThis is a confidently shot and beautifully acted story that manages to transcend quite a few — if clearly not all — of the coming-of-age genre’s cliches by delving into how the Millennial generation experiences sexuality, ostracism and growing up and how they try to relate to their parents and peers. |
| The Film StageJared MobarakWriter/director Keith Behrman knows exactly what he’s doing when introducing a variety of people along the sexuality spectrum in his latest film Giant Little Ones. He’s intentionally flooding his canvas so that we have no choice but to accept them all rather than turn our focus onto just one. |
| ObserverRex ReedSensitive performances, mature and self-assured direction, and understated writing make Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones an emotionally involving, above-average coming-of-age story with a profound impact and mercifully few clichés. |
| Slant MagazineDerek SmithKeith Behrman’s film comprehends the malleable, often inscrutable nature of desire. |
| Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerBisexual coming out stories are basically nonexistent in cinema, and that would be enough to set Giant Little Ones apart from the pack. But that's just one element of a wider story, told with a charming earnestness, about sexuality as a spectrum. |
| The New York TimesTeo BugbeeWhere many coming-of-age films build their stories around the discovery of a fixed selfhood, “Giant Little Ones” succeeds when it chooses to treat youthful identity as open to shift with accumulated experience. |
| Film ThreatAlex SavelievBehrman sidesteps overt sentimentality, captures some heartrending moments and most importantly, doesn’t resolve everything with a neat “happily ever after” conclusion. The lasting impression Giant Little Ones casts may not be “giant” – but it’s certainly not “little” either. |
