Simple review.When Olympic judges rate a performance, they look for flaws and deduct accordingly.When beauty contest judges look at a pretty girl, they do not look at what works, they look at what doesn't.Same with film reviews.I watched mesmerized. One of the most perfect films I have ever seen. Perfect casting, action, direction, writing, pacing, music.Possibly one of the most perfect films ever.And, most astonishing of all, not well known even to film buffs.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. This is an evocative tale of life before food banks and the welfare system. Watching the young protagonist pretend he enjoyed eating his "delicious" cut-from-a-magazine food was pretty poignant. The performances put in by the young actors are believable without being too sappy. Jesse Bradford is charming. Also worth seeing is Adrien Brody. He sparkles with a to-the-gut vitality. But in the end it is the kid's grit and determination that holds this movie together. His pride in himself and his dogged pursuit of his creativity, integrity and ingenuity makes this movie worth seeing. A great scene to be on the look out for is when the beautiful gum-snapping elevator girl gives the young Aaron a graduation gift. In addition, I especially enjoyed John McConnell's performance as the mean "Big Butt" cop. I'm pretty sure he was also in the recent Ladykillers with Tom Hanks. He's fun to watch.

This is a beautiful movie about an enterprising young man who survives various hardships during the depression. It has a bitter edge but isn't excessive and brings back tales of my grandmother's of how her family coped during the depression. My grandmother's parents were far more functional than the frail ill mother and the traveling salesman father who basically abandons his child to work out of state. I agree with other comments it hardly seems American because it is so deep without smashing the hammer down on our heads. Even though it is harsh I think it is suitable for older children if nothing more than an abject lesson about how real and difficult life really was. The irony is that America still exists to a lesser degree we just don't see it in the movies or on TV.

What a wonderful film. So evocative of the 1930s.Jesse Bradford was terrific as the main character. I had the opportunity in 2004 while working as an extra on Oceans 12 in Chicago to tell the director of "King of the Hill", Steven Soderbergh, what a great film he made (He said "thank you"). How did he ever find such a beautiful story and get the job to direct the film? An overlooked classic! I was glad to see recently that Jesse Bradford has been making a career as an adult actor now, appearing in several recent films, and he will be one of the lead characters in Clint Eastwoods's upcoming production, "Flags of our Fathers", due out in 2006. Also, with Jesse's training in film studies in college, I predict that he will turn to directing movies as he gets more experience, and what better mentor than Clint Eastwood! Be sure to see "king of the Hill", i believe you will love it.