SXSW Review: Yelling to the Sky
I'm a longtime fan of films that deal frankly with society's worst problems. Poverty, domestic violence, crime, racism and other harsh realities of the human condition can be the stuff of stunningly powerful cinema.
Unfortunately, the gritty and earnest Yelling to the Sky isn't quite the powerful social statement it aspires to be. While it presents many convincing images of an impoverished and completely dysfunctional family, it suffers from clichéd story elements, uneven pacing and underdeveloped characters.
The film, which screened at the Arbor on the first Saturday of SXSW, is the story of Sweetness O'Hara (Zoë Kravitz), a Queens teenager doing her best to survive in her beaten-down world. Her father, Gordon (Jason Clarke) is a violent, manic depressive alcoholic who's often AWOL from the household. His wife, Lorene (Yolanda Ross) suffers from depression and other vague ailments that leave her barely able to function. Sweetness's older sister, Ola (Antonique Smith) is pregnant by an abusive loser.
Yelling to the Sky is light on plot; it's mostly a study of how Sweetness deals with her highly unstable world and struggles to keep her family together. Sweetness is bullied and sexually harassed at school; pushed too far, she finally fights back and attacks her tormentors. To escape Gordon's abuse, Ola moves out near the end her pregnancy, only to return a few months later with a battered face and a newborn in her arms. (By returning home, she merely trades one abusive situation for another.) Lorene drifts in and out of coherence, sometimes staring blankly into space and other times being a doting mother who gives no hint of her mental problems. Gordon shows up at the family's shopworn home only when it suits him, often drunk and bloodied when he walks in the door. Obviously, there is little money for food or any other necessities; out of desperation, Sweetness turns to drug dealing and shoplifting to feed the family.
This hellish world could be the basis for a gripping, raging, heartbreaking film about the least among us, another Winter's Bone or Precious. (Precious star Gabourey Sidibe has a small role in Yelling to the Sky as a brutal bully.) But Yelling to the Sky mostly rehashes everything we've seen before, and we've seen it done with much more originality and finesse. We already know how harsh and hopeless life is for people like Sweetness; Yelling to the Sky doesn't tell us anything new about their world. The film often drags and never builds enough dramatic tension or develops its characters strongly enough to make us care much about their fates.
Ever a stickler about production details, I found one aspect of Yelling to the Sky very puzzling: The film looks as if it takes place in two vastly different eras at once. I initially thought the film was set in the 1970s, given the rotary-dial phone and decades-old televisions in the O'Hara family home. There are many other retro details, such as several images of a shiny, like-new early-1970s taxi parked in the home's driveway, as well as other vintage cars and stereo equipment in several scenes. The soundtrack includes a few Seventies songs, such as "Both Sides Now." Also, I didn't notice a cell phone, computer or any other modern electronic device in any scene.
On the other hand, the characters appear to wear modern clothes, and modern cars appear often. Also, a Barack Obama poster in a school counselor's office signals that Yelling to the Sky must be a present-day story. So, what's with all the like-new old cars and technology? Do the O'Haras own a restored 40-year-old taxi? And despite their poverty, if Sweetness and her friends are typical modern teens, wouldn't at least a few of them be spending every other minute on their cell phones? I found these overlooked (or at least unexplained) details quite confusing and distracting.
This is not to say that Yelling to the Sky does not have its good points. Some scenes work very well, and the experienced cast gives some fine performances. Kravitz is especially good, perfectly capturing the quiet rage within Sweetness. Clarke, Ross and Smith are also quite convincing as the rest of the O'Hara family. I wish the script had given them more to do and more back story to explain their actions and motivations.
Despite its many flaws, Yelling to the Sky is a noble effort, and I do applaud first-time writer, director and producer Victoria Mahoney for making a film that's often painfully real. We need more films like this one to balance the perpetual parade of mindless Hollywood fluff; hopefully, Mahoney will try again with another, far more polished film with just as much social relevance.
Yelling to the Sky plays SXSW one more time on Friday 3/18 at 4:30 pm at The Paramount.