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Small Faces (1996 film)

Small Faces is a 1996 British coming-of-age drama directed by Gillies MacKinnon, set in Glasgow in 1968, about three working-class brothers drawn into the city's youth gang culture. It was written by MacKinnon with his brother Billy, funded by BBC Films at a budget of £1.2 million, and it won the Tiger Award at the 1996 International Film Festival Rotterdam.1 • 2

Key factDetail
Director and writersGillies MacKinnon; screenplay by Gillies and Billy MacKinnon3
SettingGlasgow, 1968, amid territorial youth gang warfare3
Principal castIain Robertson (Lex), Joseph McFadden (Alan), Steven Duffy (Bobby), Clare Higgins (Lorna), Laura Fraser (Joanne), Kevin McKidd (Malky)4
Budget and backing£1.2 million, funded by BBC Films; produced with Skyline and the Glasgow Film Fund1 • 5
Runtime and classification108 minutes; BBFC cinema certificate 15, classified 22 February 19966 • 7
AwardsTiger Award, IFFR 1996; Best New British Feature, Edinburgh 1995; BAFTA Scotland nomination for Best Writer, 19972
US box office$155,239 gross in the United States and Canada8

Spoilers

Plot

The film follows the Maclean brothers of Glasgow in the late 1960s. Lex, aged 13, is torn between two models of manhood: middle brother Alan, a gifted young artist hoping to attend art school, and eldest brother Bobby, an illiterate school drop-out who has found a measure of self-respect as second-in-command of the Glen, the teenage gang of the brothers' part of the city.5 Their widowed mother, Lorna, raises the boys without obvious male role models and tries to improve the family's prospects by cultivating her American brother-in-law.3

The plot turns when Lex, more or less by chance, fires an air pistol that hits the leader of the rival gang, the Tongs, in the face. The Rotterdam festival catalog names this figure Malky Thompson; Rotten Tomatoes and the San Francisco Examiner call him Malky Johnson.3 • 4 The incident starts a feud that engulfs all three brothers. The rival gang's members stab Bobby to death; Alan, though for a time forced to serve the Glen somewhat like a war artist, manages to free himself and start studying at art school; Lex seems to recognize his mistakes and begins cultivating his own artistic gifts.5 A romantic triangle runs alongside the violence: Lex loves the 16-year-old Joanne McGowan, Bobby also makes advances, and Joanne is interested in Alan.3

Production

Gillies MacKinnon, a Glaswegian, wrote the film with his brother Billy, drawing on the Glasgow gang life the pair witnessed in their youth; critics describe the result as quasi-autobiographical.7 • 9 The Independent reported in August 1995 that MacKinnon had turned down the chance to direct Marlon Brando in Divine Rapture and used the competing offer to press BBC Films for a green light within 24 hours, which secured the £1.2 million budget.1

The film was shot on location in Glasgow, with production companies listed as BBC Films, Skyline, and the Glasgow Film Fund.5 The scene in which Alan and Lex visit an art school to look at the girls was shot at Glasgow School of Art, the building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.8 John de Borman was the cinematographer, Scott Thomas the editor, and John Keane the composer.5

Release

The film received its premiere at the 1995 Edinburgh Film Festival and its international premiere in the Tiger Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam 1996.1 • 3 The British Board of Film Classification certified the cinema version, running 108 minutes 29 seconds, on 22 February 1996 for Guild Film Distribution Ltd, with the consumer advice "contains strong language and violence"; a shorter 104-minute version was classified for home entertainment in 2003.6 Empire gives the UK release date as 12 April 1996.7 In the United States it opened on 14 August 1996 through October Films, grossing $155,239.8 • 10

Reception and legacy

British critics received the film warmly. Empire called it "outstandingly good", praising the mainly teenage cast and Kevin McKidd's "impressively evil" Malky, and placed it alongside the Glasgow Film Fund stablemate Trainspotting.7 Time Out described it as a "gem", singling out its unsentimental honesty across gang fights, courtship, and Lex's first alcoholic binge.9 The Rotterdam catalog records that the small-budget film was greatly praised, including by Variety, for its acting.3 American reviews were more mixed: the San Francisco Examiner gave it one and a quarter stars, finding the coming-of-age material familiar, while the Los Angeles Times called it rawer and more personal than Trainspotting, though made "on a TV budget".11 • 10 On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 60% critics score and an 87% audience score.4

The film's awards record reflects its festival standing: it won Best New British Feature at the 1995 Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Tiger Award at Rotterdam 1996, and Gillies and Billy MacKinnon were nominated for the 1997 BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Writer.2 It also appears in the BFI's Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century, where a Rotten Tomatoes commenter describes it as among the least-known titles on the list.4 Scholars of Scottish cinema have treated it as a key 1990s portrayal of Glasgow gang culture; Jonny Murray of Edinburgh College of Art published an analysis of the film in the Directory of World Cinema: Scotland (2015), noting that it begins and ends with scenes of Lex drawing.5 • 12

References

  1. Peter Guttridge (1995). "He turned down Marlon Brando..." The Independent.
  2. Small Faces (1995) – Awards, IMDb.
  3. Small Faces, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1996.
  4. Small Faces, Rotten Tomatoes.
  5. Jonny Murray (2015). "Small Faces", Directory of World Cinema: Scotland, accepted author manuscript, University of Edinburgh.
  6. Small Faces, British Board of Film Classification.
  7. William Thomas. "Small Faces Review", Empire.
  8. Small Faces (1995), IMDb.
  9. Small Faces, Time Out.
  10. "'Small Faces' a Raw Look at Scottish Youths on the Fringe", Los Angeles Times, 23 August 1996.
  11. Barbara Shulgasser (1996). "Topic has familiar face, but film's contribution is small", San Francisco Examiner.
  12. Small Faces, University of Edinburgh Research Explorer.

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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Small Faces (1996 film)

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