Little Birds

Director: Elgin James

2011 / 94min / DCP

Two teenaged best friends living in a grotty, economically depressed small town near California’s Salton Sea, the reckless Lily and the more responsible Alison (Juno Temple and Kay Panabaker), take off together to sample life in Los Angeles, lured by a crew of homeless, nihilistic skate rats led by Kyle Gallner’s Jesse. Drawing in part on James’s personal experiences, Little Birds is a tough and compassionate drama about no-hope youth on the edge whose only choices in life seem to be boredom or danger, imbued with a desolate grandeur by Morano’s cinematography.