In Little, a raging, horrible boss turns into a raging, horrible teenager to learn how to be a better person, but does anyone really benefit?

Regina Hall overacts as the CEO of a tech startup who treats her employees like shit and does everything to not foster a culture of innovation. She plays the kind of annoying, evil boss you only see in the movies aside from Donald Trump, apparently focused on making the audience hate her so much that by the time she turns into her smaller self, you don’t care about what happens to her. 

And you really don’t, even though young Marsai Martin does her best to emulate Hall’s over-the-top antics.  Sadly, director Tina Gordon Chism (Drumline) and screenwriter Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip) don’t give her much to work with. Yes, Martin has plenty of charisma and it’s mildly fun to see her play an adult, chomping through each scene with loads of energy, but, sadly, Little isn’t funny.

It isn’t really funny at all.

Little is lazily written, or better put, a movie with a good-enough concept that the writers forgot to turn into a comedy. The movie just stammers from one scene to the next without any real comedic identity, a listless, somewhat lame excursion in mediocrity. Co-star Issa Rae embodies this lack of clarity more than anyone; her character seems intended to be a major comedic hook, but she rarely elicits a laugh, the writing doing her no favors.

To its credit, Little is never boring, and it has a few moments that are amusing, but that’s about it. It takes too long to get to the transformation, is too long in general, and simply not very funny at all. If you want to watch a movie about a horrible person learning how to be slightly less horrible, have at it, but you--and all of us--deserve better.

Review by Erik Samdahl.