Giant Little Ones is out this week and ready to pull at your heartstrings
A heartfelt and intimate coming-of-age story about friendship, self-discovery and the power of love without labels, Giant Little Ones is one of the year’s best LGBTQ films (at least so far).
Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas Kohl (Darren Mann) are childhood best friends, leaders of their high school swim team and are enjoying their high school popularity with their girlfriends. On the night of Franky’s 17th birthday, Franky and Ballas have an unexpected sexual encounter that starts to tear their friendship apart and affect their families and friends.
While struggling with his conflicting feelings, Ballas starts a rumor about Franky’s sexuality. The fact that Franky’s father had come out as gay a year before the story begins further fuels the rumor. Solely based on assumptions, Franky is bullied and ostracized by his friends and peers. Life becomes further complicated for Franky when a secret past relationship with Ballas’ sister Natasha (Taylor Hickson) is rekindled. As Franky and Natasha bond over shared difficulties, love and romance start to blossom along with self-acceptance.
The film has an open ending without a clear understanding of Franky’s sexuality and that’s the exact point writer-director Keith Behrman wanted to get across. “The ending will leave people wondering, ‘is he this or is he that?’ but then also realize it doesn’t really matter. What excites me the most about this film is that it respects the choices people make and how they want to define themselves.”
A powerful film both universal and specifically relevant to today, Giant Little Ones also features terrific supporting performances from veteran actors Maria Bello, Kyle MacLachlan and Peter Outerbridge. Check out the trailer below and click here to order your copy. It’s available on DVD starting this week.
