Fifteen-year-olds Lily Hobart (Juno Temple) and Alison Hoffman (Kay Panabaker) grew up as best friends under the hot, desert sun on the barren shores of Southern California's inland Salton Sea. Self-destructively prone to cutting herself, rebellious Lily lives with her single mother (Leslie Mann), who is preoccupied with both her own life and Lily's distraught aunt (Kate Bosworth), the latter trying to care for a toddler and a husband suffering from severe brain damage stemming from a war injury. Far more sensible Alison dwells nearby with her depressed widower father (David Warshofsky) and tends horses for a rancher named Hogan (Neal McDonough), who serves as her father-surrogate. One day, the girls spy skateboarders in a drained pool, and Lily is immediately smitten with Jesse (Kyle Gallner). A determined Lily convinces reluctant Alison to steal Hogan's old, battered truck and drive to Los Angeles to join Jesse and his runaway pals who have become squatters in an abandoned motel. And that's how the sheltered, innocent girls are introduced to the sordid street life of petty crime and dangerous scams that seem destined to spin out of control. Homeless in Boston as a teenager, writer-director Elgin James's semi-autobiographical Little Birds is a hit-and-miss coming-of-age story. Optional. (S. Granger)
Little Birds
Millennium, 94 min., R, DVD: $28.99, Jan. 2 Volume 27, Issue 6
Little Birds
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