This film is about a teenage boy in a deprived neighbourhood. His poor family background makes it hard for him to break out and climb up the social ladder."Sweet Sixteen" may have an engaging plot, but I did not get any of it. I understood less than half of the conversations because of the accent. Hence, I was so lost and did not understand what was happening in the film. I read detailed descriptions of the plot, and could not recognise anything. I thought I was watching an entirely different film. The film itself may be too realistic to be interesting. It makes no attempts at nice sets or cinematography. The film feels like it was shot with a hand-held camera. I got so confused by the film, and I felt so disappointed.

How I love Ken Loach! How I love DVDs that offer subtitles, 'cos Loach movies absolutely need subtitles, especially this one with its thick working class Scots accents (fascinating that the English language has somehow incorporated this almost medieval dialect). Loach takes us to places we would never go to in The Disneyland Tourist world that we are sold as the 'real'world, but of course it isn't - Loach's world is the real one and his actors are real people, brilliantly directed, or allowed to be as natural as possible in a context of the narrative.The title is deceptive -one thinks one is going to see a teen coming-of-age movie in the American tradition (learning how to seduce romantic conquests, learning how to be 'marketable" - but it's a teen movie in the tradition of a socio-political context, absolutely unheard of in the American movie tradition.

I went into this film with no preconceptions about its nature. I was expecting a sort of bittersweet coming-of-age tale judging by the title alone. What i got was a gritty uncompromising tale of growing up in a drug infested section of Scotland. A very intelligent 15yr old youth is determined to reassemble his family upon the emanate return of his incarcerated Mother. He manages, with a certain tragic costs, to assimilate himself into the local crime gang and upon his mother's release from prison he is greeted with somewhat shocking repercussion's that lead to tragic consequences. The film rings true in every sense. We are treated to insights into lower-class Scottish society that maintain an authenticity that is hard to fake. All the performances are deftly handled and the script keeps you hanging on until the end. Overall, a very fine film.

If I had to summarize this film in as few of words as possible, I'd say this: Sweet Sixteen is basically about a teenager who tries desperately to please his emotionally - and oftentimes physically - absent mother. It's about how very young people come to be criminals and drug dealers and the like. In a word, they either learn it from their parents, or they learn it from their friends, who in turn learn it from their parents. Or a combination of both. I liked this movie for the same reason I didn't like this movie -- it's very honest. I've always lived in nice places my entire life, but I have family members who this movie is basically exactly like how they live/d their lives and got involved in all sorts of bad things. It hit a little too close to home for me to like it very much. It may be necessary for people who want to know why some young people are so destructive, but if you already know the answer to that, you won't gleam any new philosophic insights from this movie. All in all, it's not a bad film, but the honesty and the intensity disturbed me a little bit. If you're bored or feeling like a melancholy movie or just randomly want to hear some heavy Scottish accents, I'd recommend it, but not if you know people who began screwing up their lives at a very young age, because then it'll just leave you sad. It doesn't really offer any solutions.