LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES
s the author’s avatar in Lee Isaac Chung’s semiautobiographical coming-of-age film , Alan S Kim does a lot of heavy lifting in spite of his slight, seven-year-old frame. A good chunk of the runtime follows his hardworking father and long-suffering mother, but young David carries the primary emotional arc as he acclimatises to his new surroundings in the patch of rural Arkansas his family has claimed as their own. In addition to the carefree ebullience that comes naturally to scamps his age, Kim is called on to telegraph such grown-up emotions as resentment, guilt and compassion. Most importantly, he has a clear sense of his cuteness threshold, the point at which adorable behaviour goes so sweet it runs the risk of sickening the audience. “I’m not pretty!” little David yells in one scene. “I’m good-looking!” He toes the
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