Little Things
2018 · 41m
Directed by Andrew Nuño, Adrian Nuño
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A young woman walks her suburban hometown at night searching for the meaning of life, in a subtle, powerful short about clinical depression and the small things that save us.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone's going to call this a quiet meditation on depression, which—fine—but what's genuinely perverse is how the Nuños refuse to *resolve* anything; the meaning doesn't arrive, the night walk just... continues, and somehow that refusal to comfort us is the whole point.
A formally restrained piece that understands the lineage of the suburban nocturne—there's Gus Van Sant's patience here, a deliberate editing rhythm that trusts silence—and the restraint itself becomes the argument about what cinema can hold.
The decision to shoot the whole thing handheld but *still*, letting the camera settle into small moments of stillness rather than constantly drift, does the heavy lifting; it's technically minimal but that specific restraint is what makes the melancholy land instead of feel performed.
Reviews
'Little Things' is the subtle but powerful antidote on clinical depression that we are desperately in need of! The tone of the film, shot in bright night lights in streets, railway tracks and alleyways, captures urban loneliness, and discontent, and is spot-on.