Little Birds

Waste of life!
Salton Sea is a desolate place in Southern California not far from LA. People live there (wonder why and how) among rotten trailer parks and abandoned filthy pools. They have kids! Kids are bored, uneducated and have absolutely nothing to do.

Lily (Juno Temple) and Alison (Kay Panabaker) are two 15-year old friends that live in this desolate area. Lily lives with her mother (Leslie Mann) who is single (or divorced?). Alison's father is some kind of ridiculous slow, maybe alcoholic individual who is unable to take care of himself and doesn't really care about his daughter. Lily, visits with her young and already washed up Aunt (Kate Bosworth) who takes care of her husband (?) who obviously has problems (...apparently he was shot in the head and is unable to take care of himself, but we never get the story). Obviously, the father figure, like in most movies coming from Hollywood, is missing and when he is part of the plot, the father in most current films, plays minor roles...

EH!
It wasn't the worst movie I have ever seen. However, it was pretty bad. I was engrossed for the first half, that seems to be a strong coming of age movie about a troubled teen and her best friend, but then the writer decided to make another movie. The second half of the movie is bad melodrama. Many ends are not tied together, which is okay if it seems to be a choice, but no, it's just bad writing. The dialogue becomes forced and pretty stupid (you can tell that it is an adult writer trying to write what they think teenage male miscreants would sound like) Then there is the end *SPOILER* I wanted to call this my review "Hey, let's kill a guy and then play in the ocean," because that is how the movie ends. In the end I decided that might ruin the movie for some people. I was very disappointed because I had high hopes for this movie.

A dark film about friendship and survival
British actress Juno Temple's career got a great start with films like "Notes On A Scandal" and "Atonement" but more recently she's gone for rebellious, sexy teens headed for trouble. The results have been mixed ranging from the excellent "Killer Joe" to the wretched "Jack and Diane."

Here she plays Lily, a 15 year old living in the crumbling town surrounding the dead Salton Sea in California. Her best friend, Alison (Kay Panabaker) is more reserved but both are looking for a way out. While both actresses were in their early 20's when the film was shot, Lily is the more physically developed and uses her attributes on a trio of skateboarders from L. A. Alison, with her spindly frame looks more like a 15 year old but is still willing to make the drive to the city to hook up with the boys.

Much of the film sets up the stage for their getaway. Lily has a strained relationship with her mother (nice dramatic performance by Leslie Mann) and her aunt (Kate...

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