Passes the Bechdel test

Little Men

Name: Little Men
Released: 2017

2017. Directed by Ira Sachs, written by Mauricio Zacharias and Ira Sachs.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
10 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 97.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Despite dissimilarities, two middle-school boys from one-child households (Jake and Tony) form a natural friendship when Jake moves with family into his recently deceased grandfather's Brooklyn apartment above the dress shop business of Tony's mother. Extrovert Tony plays soccer, desires to become an actor (like Jake's father) and is sociable, while introvert Jake likes to draw, build his portfolio and be somewhat reclusive. Their best friend status is challenged by Jake's parents inheriting ownership of the building where Tony's mother runs her dress business, asking for three times the rent she previously paid within the upscaling neighborhood. The boys retaliate with silence, but it will likely not be enough.

Released: 04 May 2017
Genres: Drama
Rated: PG
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 86 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 16 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Brian 180 lines, man
Jake 168 lines, man
Tony 134 lines, man
Leonor 131 lines, woman
Kathy 94 lines, woman
Nick 26 lines
Acting Teacher 24 lines
Julia 22 lines
Audrey 21 lines, woman
Suzanne 14 lines, man

Full cast, 30 people

Greg Kinnear as Brian Jardine
Jennifer Ehle as Kathy Jardine
Paulina García as Leonor
Michael Barbieri as Tony Calvelli
Theo Taplitz as Jake Jardine
Talia Balsam as Audrey
Maliq Johnson as Umar
Anthony A. Flamminio as Joey
Madison Wright as Julia
John Procaccino as Mr. Plummer
Mauricio Bustamante as Acting Teacher
Alfred Molina as Hernán
Ching Valdes-Aran as Pilar
Stan Carp as Sal Bartolini
Stella Schnabel as Nina
Yolonda Ross as Arkadina
Leah C. Gardiner as Director
Derek Johnson as Luke
Teeka Duplessis as Eva
Clare Foley as Sally
Renaldo Napolitano as Classmate
Elia Monte-Brown as Bianca
Chinasa Ogbuagu as Valentina
Alden Song as Club DJ
Bryan Webster as Park Ranger
Andy Karl as Man (uncredited)
Melanie Mahanna as Customer (uncredited)
Kevin D. McGee as Audience Member (uncredited)
Arthur J. Nascarella as Stu Gershman (uncredited)
Johnny Serret as Student (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 10% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 97

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	4	17
4 to 6	6	19
7 to 9	15	38
10 to 12	11	12
13 to 15	2	37
16 to 18	34	6
19 to 21	2	31
22 to 24	2	7
25 to 27	6	47
28 to 30	4	6
31 to 33	26	29
34 to 36	0	8
37 to 39	19	22
40 to 42	5	22
43 to 45	6	12
46 to 48	15	27
49 to 51	3	5
52 to 54	4	7
55 to 57	11	39
58 to 60	39	6
61 to 63	6	20
64 to 66	13	0
67 to 69	8	11
70 to 72	9	8
73 to 75	18	26
76 to 78	15	14
79 to 81	5	16
82 to 84	0	0
85 to 87	0	0
88 to 90	3	34
91 to 93	0	0
94 to 96	0	0
97 to 97	0	26

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

PILAR: I don't remember this. KATHY: Oh my God. We took it home.

KATHY: We have this rule in the house; no games during the week. And no internet before five either. LEONOR: But during vacation they have all this free time, and what are you going to do?

LEONOR: That's better. KATHY: Sure, you can finish. But first you have to tell me: what do you think? The dress?

ARKADINA: We are not going away, after all. NINA: It is a dream!

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 35 are women's.

291 lines from women, 552 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 11 men in the cast. 10 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 15 of 932. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 49 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 35% of the words (3,084), men 65% (5,700).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Ira Sachs (man)
Written by: Mauricio Zacharias (man), Ira Sachs (man)
Produced by: Christos V. Konstantakopoulos (man), Jim Lande (gender not listed), Lucas Joaquin (man), Ira Sachs (man), L.A. Teodosio (gender not listed)
Shot by: Óscar Durán (man)
Edited by: Affonso Gonçalves (man), Mollie Goldstein (woman)
Music by: Dickon Hinchliffe (man)
Production design by: Alexandra Schaller (woman)
Costumes by: Eden Miller (gender not listed)
Cast by: Avy Kaufman (woman)