Review: ‘Littlerock’

To steal a line from a Paul Simon song, the characters in "Littlerock" have lives so common they disappear. These are people living far away from the big city. Some of them have dreams, but they tend not to extend beyond the next party or the next beer. Living out in the desert communities outside of Los Angeles, there's nothing stereotypically "California" about them. These aren't the people you'd expect to see in a film, and it's both a strength and a weakness of "Littlerock" that the movie is almost as miniscule as its characters.

Directed and co-written by Mike Ott, "Littlerock" is a micro-budget indie that focuses on two young Japanese tourists, Rintaro (Rintaro Sawamoto) and Atsuko (Atsuko Okatsuka), who are brother and sister touring the U.S. Their car has died in the town of Littlerock, and while they wait for it to get fixed they meet some of the locals, including Cory (Cory Zacharia), a misfit who wants to move to Hollywood to become an actor or model. The young men of Littlerock all take a shine to pretty Atsuko, so much so that when Rintaro's ready to leave she decides to stay behind, even though she doesn't speak a lick of English.

Running less than 90 minutes, "Littlerock" (which won the "Someone to Watch" award at the Independent Spirit Awards) doesn't have a plot as much as it has a collection of incidents. In place of a ripping narrative, the movie quietly observes: the characters, the setting, a time of life before you have to grow up and become a responsible adult. Even the movie's theme of family and community is modestly handled; it could blow away with the wind at a moment's notice.

But such modesty can feel major if handled with great care, and while Ott doesn't quite overcome the slightness of his tale, "Littlerock" is a poignant small story about how hard it is to fit in. This extends to the Japanese tourists -- Rintaro speaks some English, but not enough to exactly be called fluent -- as well as to Cory, whose life is slowly revealed to be one of endless self-delusion and misery. It wouldn't be accurate to say there are spoilers in a film as tiny as "Littlerock," but a budding love triangle between Atsuko, Cory and another resident creates a delicate through-line that's all the more painful because it's apparent early on which of the three will get his heart broken. Zacharia has never acted professionally before, but he's exceptional at capturing all of Cory's confusion and neediness. Constantly accused of being gay because of his effeminate manner, Cory is like a lot of people who have been bullied for being different, hoping art can somehow rescue him. That it's clear that no such transcendence is coming doesn't make his struggles any less moving.

The rest of the cast gives natural, casual performances, which is what you'd want for something this handmade and intimate. Ott can sometimes overdo his quiet, poetic style, but it has its rewards as well. "Littlerock" is a film in which most of the main characters can't understand what the other characters are saying because of a language barrier. But loneliness is universal.

Grade: B

LiTTLEROCK Trailer from Small Form Films on Vimeo.