Small Time

Running time: 104 mins

Mother’s addiction affects her impressionable little girl.

Getting by in a desolate, rural town, precocious Emma experiences far too much dysfunction for a kid her age. When her mother, Jessie overdoses and is hospitalized, Jessie’s boyfriend takes the child on a dangerous joyride into a harrowing underworld of dealers, junkies, perverts, and religious fanatics. Through the thick of it, Emma’s veteran father resurfaces in her life— perhaps, hopefully, able to provide her a decent future as the closest person she has to a role model. With the country’s opioid epidemic at an all-time high, Small Time conveys a necessary depiction of how quickly a child’s innocence can dissipate when exposed and profoundly influenced by a parent’s lifestyle as an addict. – Peter Koros