It is a performances centric movie

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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.

Another excellent tale of gritty Glasgow from Ken Loach, well told from the eyes of a 16 year old boy trying to get another chance for his imprisoned and heroin addicted mother.The boy, Liam, makes one wrong choice after another although you can hardly blame him. His choices are limited, his environment unfriendly, the role models in his life are bad ones. There isn't a lot of room for him to maneuver, but he does the best he can.You can pretty much see where he is going to end up before you're too far into the film, but that doesn't make the story any less fascinating. You keep hoping he's going to transcend his background and somehow come out on top, even though you know he won't.Fine acting and production, there is nothing about the movie that strikes a false note. It flows well from the first minute to the last.

This film is eerily similar to another movie, set & shot half-way around the globe. Check out, "Once Were Warriors", a New Zealand production that addresses many of the same issues. "Once Were Warriors" is about an inner-city Maori family that's forced to deal with the exact same social issues, such as impoverishment, dysfunction, violence, all of it. Jake, one of the lead characters in, "Once Were Warriors", resembles the, "Sweet Sixteen", character, Liam, in that both these guys will stop at absolutely nothing to see their agendas through. Jake, like Liam, charges into situations to get things finished, come hell or high water. They both eventually lose out, because they went entirely too far. Like "Sweet Sixteen", "Once Were Warriors" isn't a sweet, heart-warming family movie! Still, it's well-made & definitely worth seeing.