Small Faces (1996)

This gritty British drama set in Glasgow during the 1960s offers an interesting look at the tumultuous lives of several teens as they precariously wend their way to adulthood. The story opens in 1968 as Lorna Maclean, an impoverished widow, tries to cope with her three lively children in their dark and crowded tenement. The children are; troubled Bobby, who has joined the gang of Charlie Sloan; dreamy Alan who aspires to go to art school, and the 13-year old midget Lex, who thinks of himself as a genius, but finds himself continually preyed upon by his older brothers, and by his teachers. Even at his young age, Lex has a budding drinking problem. Much of the story centers on him and the trouble he finds after he accidentally shoots the leader of the dreaded Tongs gang, Malky Thompson, in the head with a BB gun. Malky is already a young psychotic, and soon Lex finds himself entangled in the increasingly brutal world of gang violence.