Petits Freres

Like Ponette, director Jacques Doillon's previous film, Petits Freres has at its center a young girl, but where Ponette was an adorable four-year-old, Talia is a hardened 13-year-old who has earned the nickname "Tyson." ("You got a problem with that?" is her response to someone who merely asks her her name). One critic called this gritty urban drama, set in the poorer section of Paris, the French equivalent to Kids, an apt comparison but without the American film's exploitative sex scenes. Here, Talia runs away from home and her abusive stepfather and falls in with an interracial gang of kids who befriend her while conspiring to steal her beloved pit bull. The cast, made up of non-professionals, is extraordinary, but Doillon belabors the obvious with heavy-handed hip-hop lyrics and loses his way with a meandering, artificial ending. An optional purchase. (K. Lee Benson)