Sweet Sixteen

"Sweet Sixteen" was a very pleasant surprise. For someone like me who have yet been exposed to his previous works before this, I shall now eagerly go out and seek out his other movies.
The gradual dramatic shift and character build-up in Sweet Sixteen is a testament to Ken Loach's artistry and masterful craft as a director. His empathy for his characters is very evident here. Coupled with his intuitive understanding of how this story should be told, the film packed an emotional wallop (especially approaching the end) much unexpected before watching it.
Particularly striking is the unexpected range of Martin Compston's portrayal of Liam, the male protagonist of this powerful film. Throughout the film, we glimpsed into the psyche of this young boy/ man - his intelligence (uncanny street smarts), his honour (towards friendship & kinship), his courage and conviction and most heartbreakingly, his idealistic naiveté. This boy is brimming with charismatic magnetism. A bright future awaits him (can already picture him as a future Clive Owen or Tim Roth).
The scene that sold me was the (mild spoilers ahead) unexpectedly moving confrontation between Liam and his friend Pinball(approaching the end of the film). In those short few minutes, the power and depths of their ties were presented with heartbreaking clarity. I was floored completely. Being the sensitive bloke that I am, I welled up on witnessing the heartfelt sincerity of that scene. Unbelievable.
Beneath Sweet Sixteen's colourful language(with swearing aplenty) and thick indecipherable accents, this understated film turned out to be a very moving, top rated piece of drama. That the Oscars as usual ignored this film completely, has further cemented my disdain for the Academy's suspect taste (or lack thereof).
IMHO, Sweet Sixteen is too good a film to be ignored. It deserves a far wider audience. Will thus hope this film do secure a future commercial release in Singapore so more people can be touched by its magic. But the hopes are dim, which is very sad indeed.