Little (film)

Little is a 2019 American fantasy comedy film directed and co-written by Tina Gordon. It stars Regina Hall, Issa Rae, and Marsai Martin, and follows an overbearing boss who is transformed into the child version of herself. Martin serves as an executive producer on the project, and at 14 years old is the youngest person to ever hold the title on a Hollywood production.

The film was released in the United States on April 12, 2019, by Universal Pictures, and has grossed over $48 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances and heart but called it "a bit safer and lighter on laughs than many would like."

Plot
As a child, Jordan Sanders was bullied. As an adult, she has become the bully as she runs her own tech company and treats everyone around her like garbage. A child named Stevie wishes for Jordan to be a kid again to take her down a peg. The wish comes true, and Jordan becomes 13 again. She asks her assistant April Williams for help with the company while Jordan is forced to go back to the same school that made her miserable.

At school, Jordan is bullied again, but she befriends three other outcasts - Isaac, Raina, and Devon. Meanwhile, April has a hard time keeping everyone's attention at work without Jordan there to instill fear into their hearts and souls. What's more is that the company's biggest client, Connor, wants to hear a great pitch or he will move to a different firm. Jordan and April have a fight, and April quits.

After Jordan realizes how terrible she has been, she helps the kids perform at a pep rally, earning them the respect of the other students. April finds Stevie to try and help turn Jordan back to normal, but things don't work. Jordan, now having changed inside, vows to be a better friend to April and to support her pitch idea. This allows her to turn back into an adult and go back to work. After several rejections, April's pitch scores a huge client, and Jordan becomes a better boss to everyone.

Cast

 * Regina Hall as Jordan Sanders, a ruthless tech mogul
 * Marsai Martin as 13-year-old Jordan Sanders
 * Issa Rae as April Williams, Jordan's overworked assistant
 * Justin Hartley as Gary Marshall, a teacher on whom 13-year-old Jordan has a crush
 * Tone Bell as Preston
 * Rachel Dratch as Agent Bea
 * Mikey Day as Connor
 * JD McCrary as Isaac
 * Marc Hawes as Scott
 * Tucker Meek as Devon
 * Thalia Tran as Raina
 * Marley Taylor as Stevie
 * Eva Carlton as Caren Greene / Jasmine
 * Luke James as Trevor
 * Kayla Peltier as Becca
 * Tracee Ellis Ross as the voice of Homegirl, Jordan's virtual assistant
 * George Lott as Passenger at Red light

Production
Marsai Martin, who stars on the show Black-ish, created by Kenya Barris, came to him with the idea for the film on set in 2014 when she was 10 years old, having been inspired by the film Big (1988). Martin acts as an executive producer on Little, and at the age of 14 is the youngest person to ever hold the title on a major Hollywood production. Issa Rae signed onto the film on May 2, 2018, while Regina Hall, who was already attached as an executive producer, joined the cast later that month.

Principal photography took place June through August 2018 around Atlanta.

Release
The film was released in the United States on April 12, 2019. It had originally been slated for a September 20, 2019 release.

Box office
, Little has grossed $40.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $7.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $48.2 million, against a production budget of $20 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Hellboy, After and Missing Link, and was projected to gross $14–18 million from 2,667 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.4 million on its first day, including $735,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $15.5 million, finishing second, behind holdover Shazam!. The film made $8.5 million and $3.5 million in its second and third weekends, respectively, finishing fifth and seventh.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 132 reviews, with an average rating of 4.89/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A disappointingly uneven but overall agreeable spin on a familiar formula, Little benefits from a big heart -- and a story that makes good use of its talented, well-matched cast." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 4 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 62%.

Peter Debruge of Variety praised Rae and Martin's performances, and called the film an "amusing yet predictable body-swap comedy." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film two out of five stars, saying that "[t]he comedy is fundamentally hobbled by the split in narrative focus between Jordan and April. We are never sure who is the heroine here, who has the comedy underdog status, who we are supposed to be rooting for."