‘Look Back’ Review Finds a Story Nearly Empty of Grown-Ups, and Better for It

Variety's review of Hirokazu Kore-eda's manga adaptation "Look Back" describes a film told almost entirely through the eyes of children, with anyone past school age largely absent from the story. The review notes that adults who do appear are treated as incidental, pushed to the margins of scenes built around its young characters. That early, careful focus on a child's perspective, the review says, eventually gives way to a more affecting turn as the story progresses. The assessment centers on how a film so contained within one narrow view of the world can still land emotionally once it moves past its opening stretch.

With reporting from Variety.