Following the struggles of two smart boys, who fights for survival when their mothers are taken by the authorities, the thing that brings terrible for them, as they have to defend themselves.
The expressive performances of the two young protagonists helps to smooth over the rough spots in a script that too often turns sappy and heavy-handed.
A gritty, sometimes downright heartwrenching story of two young boys left to fend for themselves for weeks during a boiling-hot summer in a Brooklyn housing project.
At its best, the movie is emotionally rapturous, helped along by Brooks's incredible talent. At its worst, while it avoids falling into poverty porn (to my judgment, at least), it runs into a kind of hysteria of putting children in danger.
"The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete" is a moving bit of mischief and mayhem that will break your heart, give you hope, make you laugh, possibly cry.
Directing pitfalls notwithstanding, these young stars deliver such earnest performances that the audience will find it hard not to be moved by their tale.
Pitched fascinatingly, at times uneasily, between misery and uplift, "Mister & Pete" tells the story of an endlessly resourceful child who survives the unimaginable over one long summer.
Mister and Pete are, as the title goes, inevitably served up defeat at practically every turn, but ultimately it is outweighed by the strength and resilience the pair come to consistently display in the oppressive face of it.
