everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Blistering performances.

Howard Shumann's comments are somewhat good, but a bit distorted... I wonder if he actually watched this movie.... A few points to correct: Where it says that Liam met "expected circumstances" after he stole drugs from his step-father, Stan, and that Stan and his buddies beat up Liam after this incident.... Stan actually beat up Liam after Liam refused to pass drugs on to his mother while she was in jail. The only other participant (buddy), was Liam's grandfather, who watched. It was AFTER this incident that Liam moved in with his sister, Chantelle. It was AFTER this incident that Liam stole the drugs from Stan. Stan never knew he stole them. Liam was then noticed in the drug selling "arena" by the local big drug dealers and hired by them. It was also AFTER he was hired by them (not before as in HS's comments) that he used the pizza delivery mopeds to deliver drugs. He worked for the pizza delivery... .that's why they were so "friendly" as he calls it.Overall, it was a pretty good "B" movie... entertaining. It was especially fun to try to figure out what the Scots were saying in their quick, broken dialect... it is subtitled in the "Queen's English".

Liam is a teenager surrounded by crime and poverty all around him. His step-father and grandfather having him smuggling drugs in to his mother's prison for her to sell on, while his activities with friend pinball can only politely be described as "anti-social". With his mother due to be released in only a few months, Liam is determined to get her a new start along with him, his sister and her young son. However his opportunities for getting money to set them up is limited and he steals drugs from his step-father's stash and tries to deal them off as quick as possible to make the money he needs.At times watching a Ken Loach film is a bit like being having your face pushing down into something unpleasant for two hours; occasionally you get to come up and take a breath of fresh air but you are quickly pushed right back down again soon enough. So it is with Sweet Sixteen, which sets us down in a Scottish world of poverty and crime where "opportunity" is having a good supply and a good spot to sell, while being seen as having "potential" means that you can sell without using the stash yourself. Typically for those trapped within this sort of world, the goal is to get out of the situation but using the situation to do it but, unlike Jay Z, the story rarely sees the protagonists living to rich old lives married to the sexiest pop diva around.In Liam's story his hope is not to become rich but just to get out of the area and hopefully get a normal life with his mother. The entrapping nature of his world is seen in the need to get in deeper in order to get out and so it goes. The gritty, depressing locations and the frequent, strong language are only cosmetic things that suggest the problem because really the grittiness is all in the characters and their situations. Laverty's script brings these out well without ever making it come over a preaching or hand-wringing, instead he just presents it for what it is, which is far from cheerful. It is depressing watching but yet quite compelling and convincing as it paints a world where "bettering oneself" is nothing more than liberal wishful thinking. Although tit isn't fair to criticise this story for being unrelentingly bleak, it is hard to watch it and, once seen, I cannot imagine why anyone would wish to rewatch it again even within the medium term.The cast work well with the script though. Compston is convincingly ratty and very much the type of kid that most of us would avoid eye-contact with; however he manages to find the person in there early on, so that he can then do a good job of losing that same person as it goes on. Ruane has a simpler role but works OK it in, likewise Fulton, Abercromby and others all turn in natural performances. Credit to Loach again because he has drawn out convincing performances despite working with a mostly young cast.There is no getting away from the fact that this is a depressing and bleak portrayal of life in poverty but, although not one you'll watch over and over again, it is an impressive and engaging 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.

I watched this film in college, it was either for Film Studies or Media Studies, I knew I had to watch again one day, when I got the opportunity I'm glad I did, directed by Ken Loach (Kes, Cathy Come Home, Carla's Song, Looking for Eric). Basically in the gritty and dismal Scottish town of Greenock, where unemployment is rampant and there is little hope for the youth of the city, Liam (Scotland BAFTA winner Martin Compston) is a typical teenager, causing trouble and absorbing whatever goes on around him. Liam is waiting for the release of his mother Jean (Michelle Coulter), who is serving a prison sentence for a crime that was actually committed by her boyfriend Stan (Gary McCormack), a crude and obnoxious drug pusher, he works alongside Liam's equally rough and foul-mouthed, mean- spirited grandfather Rab. Liam is determined to rescue his mother from Stan and Rab, which means finding a safe haven beyond their reach, he has found a seemingly perfect caravan home, but he needs to raise a lot of money to buy it, not easy for a young man. Liam and his friends, including Pinball (William Ruane), come up with many crazy schemes in order to get money, and cause a lot of trouble along the way, it is only when Liam steals a stash of drugs from his grandfather that he can become a dealer himself and make the money he needs. Liam ends up crossing paths with the wrong people, being beaten up, and the caravan home is burned to the ground, but he gets a lucky break when a businessman who knows about the drug culture offers to help him, offering him a substantial pay, using a pizza delivery business as cover, and finding him a flat for him to rent for him and his mother. It comes to the day of Jean's release, Liam is happy to see her, and very excited to be able to show her the home that he has found them, she is surprised, they celebrate with a pizza party and DJ at the flat. However, Jean cannot help but fall back into the arms of thug Stan, Liam is upset and goes to confront them, she explains that she is grateful but is devoted to Stan, Liam is angered and gets into a fight with Stan, until Liam stabs him in the chest with a knife. In the end, Liam is last seen on the beach, he receives a call from his sister Chantelle (Annmarie Fulton), who reminds him that the day is his 16th birthday, she also mentions that the police are looking for him, and despite everything she still loves him, he walks towards the sea. Also starring Michelle Abercromby as Suzanne, Calum McAlees as Calum, Robert Rennie as Scullion and Martin McCardie as Tony. Compston is a non-professional actor, but is a great choice for the leading character who may be doing wrong, but for the right reasons, it is a simple story about a teenager doing whatever it takes to help himself and his ex-junkie mother, the majority of the film is depressing and hard-hitting, with drug dealing and violence, this and the swearing definitely makes the film worthy of an 18 certificate, but it leaves room for lighter moments, it is suggested you watch this with subtitles, the Scottish accents are very strong, a controversial but worthwhile drama. Good!