Watch The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete For Free

Overrated and overhyped

Instant Favorite.

Great Film overall

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Masterfully told, poignant and memorable, this film was an emotional home run. Every character was vivid and raw, especially the compassion-evoking, young lead, "Mister." Jennifer Hudson was just short of brilliant in her portrayal of a troubled, desperate mother, spiraling out of control, plagued by the repercussions of too many poor choices. This film is grittily realistic, thanks to a near-perfect cast and superb, thoughtful storytelling. Love it.

"Is it OK not to love your mom?" Mister (Brooks) is having a tough time at school not only fitting in but with his grades as well. When he leaves the only place he has to go is home, to his drug addicted and basically absent mother Gloria (Hudson). One day he comes home to find Pete, a kid he knows in his room. Gloria informs Mister they will be taking care of him for a few days but no one sees what is coming next. First of all I have to start by saying this is a fantastic movie but hard to watch. I would compare it to Precious in that way. This one deals with how the kids take care of themselves in the only way they know how rather then living with an abusive mother. The movie is emotionally draining but very much worth seeing especially for the kid playing Mister. He was amazing in this and deserves some sort of nomination. He really brings powerful emotions to this and even when he breaks the law in some scenes you are still rooting for him. I can not say enough about this movie and it deserves to be seen by a larger audience then it will get. Overall, emotionally draining but a must see movie. I highly recommend this. I give it an A.

. . . featuring some of the best child acting of this century, and lots of people from the American Idol TV show. Only a freezer gets shot; only a rodent dies--but an 8th grade repeater learns a little respect and comes up with some good material for his "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" English class assignment. Viewers looking past the unpunished child predator, the unpunished child-battering shopkeeper, the homeless but Purple-Hearted former U.S. Marine, the promise-breaking "moving-on-up" married man's mistress, and the unmolested sex & dope kingpin of one Brooklyn housing "Project" will see that this film's main message is: "Don't Snitch!" While some may be tempted to view this movie as an exploration of the unequal distribution of American wealth, it really is NOT any such thing; the only "solutions" shown here smack of being either criminal acts of anarchism or implausible fairy tale twists. If anything, the REAL secondary message may be that more guns (and firearms education, of course) are needed in the Projects. Afterall, the shopkeeper gets NO respect from Mister by waving around a red-painted baseball bat!

I saw this film at Sundance and the cast and crew got about four standing ovations. People who raved about Fruitvale said this film tops it. This a great film! This film is a cross between Spike Lee's Clockers (1995) and Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows (2004), with a bit of Fresh (1994) mixed in. Based on a true story, Nobody Knows portrays siblings who are abandoned by their mother and forced to survive on their own. Resiliency is a trait of many urban kids. Even in tragedy they were just kids. Mister and Pete doesn't try to let the audience "off the hook". The performances pull you in, or at least it did for me.I was surprised to see how low the ratings were for this film.