The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Sweet Sixteen shows that he's (Loach) as capable of anger as his protagonist and just as eager to draw attention to an unchanging problem: the blight of generational poverty.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, Germany, Spain · 2002
Rated R · 1h 46m
Director Ken Loach
Starring Martin Compston, Annmarie Fulton, William Ruane, Michelle Abercromby
Genre Crime, Drama
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While Liam waits for his mother to be released from prison on his sixteenth birthday, he dreams of a better life for them away from their drug-dealing family. Seeking a new place for them to live together, Liam raises money the only way he can: by selling his family's supply.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Sweet Sixteen shows that he's (Loach) as capable of anger as his protagonist and just as eager to draw attention to an unchanging problem: the blight of generational poverty.
There are no hearts and flowers in Loach's hard-edged world, no kindly interventions, no signs from heaven. Instead, he gives us the unvarnished facts about working-class exploitation and the failure of ambition in low places.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Loach has made more memorable films, such as "Raining Stones" and "Ladybird Ladybird," but his dramatic sense remains strong and his social conscience is absolutely unstoppable.
It's not a happy film, but there's much incidental, quotidian happiness in it. Like Lynne Ramsay's lovely "Ratcatcher," the movie is far from sentimental about children.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
It's an uncompromising movie that illustrates one of the most convincing personality transformations that I have seen in a recent motion picture.
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
With unsurprising irony, the "Sixteen" of the title foreshadows Liam's birthday and even worse calamity, which makes a grim and gripping story all the more heartbreaking.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
A hard film to shake and makes us think and think again.
Miami Herald by Rene Rodriguez
Watching this essentially good but misguided kid slide into a hopeless future is both transfixing and heartbreaking.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The movie's performances have a simplicity and accuracy that is always convincing. Compston, who plays Liam, is a local 17-year-old discovered in auditions at his school. He has never acted before, but is effortlessly natural.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
It's a beautiful, grim tale.
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