The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete 2013

Sara Stewart, New York Post: 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. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: It sticks to a familiar horrors-of-childhood formula-a continual cycle of hope and betrayal-and tends to wrap up subplots with convenient twists. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "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. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: What day-to-day struggles do kids in need face? George Tillman Jr.'s "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete" addresses many of them within a self-contained but successful story. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: 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. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This is an impressive piece of grass-roots filmmaking. Read more

Sam Adams, Time Out: The movie can't seem to settle on a consistent style or rhythm but still gets to you, even if it displays the subtlety of a truck going through a wall. Read more

USA Today: Dizon and Brooks are wonderfully natural actors, and their characters' bond becomes like that of brothers, with Mister looking out for Pete, at first grudgingly and ultimately with real affection. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Tillman seems to know that we need to go home feeling hope for Mister and Pete, who, it turns out, aren't so easily defeated. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: They may be tiny little kids, but they deliver outsize performances. Read more