The petty crime and vandalism he takes to with his anxious friend Pinball (William Ruane) are partly a response to their circumstances. But like so many street-raised kids, he's simultaneously likable and repellent being driven by what he considers decent motives hardly makes him decent. And that burden leaves him with a lot to prove. Liam's affection for his mother and the childish innocence of his desires is anchored in a sweetness. He is also trying to talk her into selling drugs while she is in prison. All of the fight has gone out of her, though she's chattel for her bottom-feeder mate, Stan (Gary McCormack), a drug dealer, and is doing time in his place. Compston) is compelled by a commitment to be the male center of his parent's life by any means necessary. Like so many poor boys raised by single mothers, Liam (Mr. His emotional commitment to the material makes the movie, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, romantic in an old-fashioned way, despite the bleakness of the story.
SWEET SIXTEEN MOVIE STILL MOVIE
Compston's untamed star power gives the movie a heart, a sweetness that makes the title heartfelt and not just cheaply ironic, given the unremittingly unforgiving streets of Glasgow, where the film is set. And as in Truffaut's film, subtitles are necessary, here to understand the heavily Scots-accented dialogue. Several scenes also evoke François Truffaut's 1959 triumph, ''The 400 Blows,'' with its adolescent sense of doom and reckless, youthful energy with no focus. Compston succeeds on the same levels as the film, which brings to mind the socially conscious melodramas of the 1930's from Warner Brothers. There's nothing new in the directing intriguingly, Mr. This slim, gawky kid takes to the camera with alarming ease and makes acting seem as deceptively simple as the title of Mr. Loach's bold, direct framing of the narrative and the casual dynamism of its young star, Martin Compston, making his acting debut. The picture remains indelible because of Mr. A year after its premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival, Ken Loach's quick, deft life-on-the-streets drama ''Sweet Sixteen'' still has a place in my head.
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