Little Fugitive [siff] is peppered with clips of archival footage from the glory days of Coney Island. They’re narrated in elementary school book report fashion by one of the boys at the center of the story. Joey (age 7) and his older brother Lenny (age 12), live in Atlantic City with their semi-transient possibly-alcoholic mother. Their grandfather was a dwarf star in turn of the century elephant show, and their father Peter Dinklage is in jail for an unspecified crime. When the older brother’s birthday prank goes too far, the young tyke runs away to the seedy world of modern Coney Island.

Along the way he meets all of the stock characters you’d expect — a pedophile pony ride attendee, a spunky fellow runaway — while his brother and a neighborhood foster kid try to find him. It’s heartwarming in the face of adversity territory here, but none of the actors are really up to the task, giving it the feeling of a Lifetime movie of the week.

However, the photography is really gorgeous. Abandoned structures and strangely wide open landscapes are shot beautifully in high contrast and super saturated colors. If you can get past the kid narration, the stories of old timey Coney Island are kind of interesting, too. It almost makes me wish that instead of re-making a 1953 movie, they’d delved into the story of the wild electrocuted elephant, the invention of the electric chair, or the Coney Island hospital for deformed and premature infants.

(27 May, 15 June)