Small Faces Reviews

Another cruel story of youth, this time set against the grim backdrop of Glasgow in the 1960s. Adolescent Lex McLean (Iain Robertson) aspires to be an artist like his older brother Alan (Joseph McFadden), but finds it increasingly difficult to escape the violence that's engulfing his working-class neighborhood. It doesn't help that Lex's other brother -- the deeply disturbed Bobby (J.S. Duffy) -- is a member of the Glens, a mod street gang. Armed with an air gun, Lex manages to accidentally shoot out the eye of a rival gang leader, making himself and his brothers the targets of a vicious vendetta. The familiar coming-of-age-in-the-slums proceedings are shored up by a solid soundtrack and an authentic feel for the period, but the tone is earnest and simplistic. Lex's brothers never become more than tokens (which future will he choose?), and you find yourself longing for the emotional complexity that makes similarly unsentimental journeys by Terence Davies or Francois Truffaut so haunting.