Directed By Sean Price Williams

Starring – Talia Ryder, Ayo Edebiri, Simon Rex

The Plot – A picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S undertaken by Lillian, a high school senior (Ryder) from South Carolina. She gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C.

Rated R for adult language, drug use, and scenes involving blood/gore

THE SWEET EAST Trailer | TIFF 2023 (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

First impressions are everything to directorial debuts, and while I have many issues with Williams’ big step forward as a master storyteller, the kindest thing that I can say about “The Sweet East” is that it’s unforgettable in the most impactful kind of way. Unforgettable for the various observations that he supplants to contemporary America and the kinds of people and predicaments that now inhabit it, blending absurd realities with occasionally fantastical executions that somehow spontaneously feels bizarre, yet oddly enough familiar. Also unforgettable in the unapologetic emphasis that it supplants to audience interpretation, reveling in the seedy sliminess of a sneering coming of age narrative that uniquely mirrors “Alice in Wonderland”, in that a youthful protagonist explores the harsh and unforgiving realities of a world she’s never experienced. Williams effortlessly establishes this as a world that is anything but safe for a young girl, but never in ways that overwhelm her vulnerability factor, instead articulating Lillian as a force of her own who knows how to manipulate anything and anyone that initially labels her as prey, before waking them up to her predator status. Williams direction frequently appraises unpredictability to the narrative, but it’s essentially his experience as the Safdie Brothers’ cinematographer that is most beneficial to the proceedings, generating a gritty and grimy canvas to the proceedings that makes the audience feel a particular way, long before the events of Lillian’s journey vividly take shape. Like those previous Safdie collaborations in “Good Time” or “Heaven Knows What”, claustrophobic proximity to the characters remains firmly prominent, affording us unfiltered access the registries of the character’s actions or reactions while inside of a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, but for my money it’s what Williams does with the filtering of the Super 16 lens that is most vital, weathering the presentation naturally in ways that makes the imagery and environments stand out with a lived-in brand of dirtiness to the guerilla style of filmmaking that is constantly on display. Aside from the film’s various scene-stealing cameos with some of the big names that are currently hitting, the film could easily pass for a documentary inside of the darkest corridors of America’s east coast, where Neo-Nazi’s, sex cults, and social anarchists are just a few examples of the types that influence such a darkly dank brand of presentation. Speaking of that aforementioned ensemble, the performances help to somewhat override the limitations in characterization, particularly in Talia Ryder, whom I’ve adored since 2020’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”. Ryder marvels in front of the camera, both with facial deliveries that double down on the awkwardness of the various wild card characters she interacts with, but also her commitment to the movie’s intentionally lackadasical dialogue, which articulates the relaxed and uninvolving characteristics of teenage concern, where Ryder influences just enough to drive the conversation in context, but never in ways that make us feel like her character truly cares. Lastly, there’s a randomness in tone and genre capacities to the movie’s many soundtrack selections that I greatly appreciated, inscribing sequences with such an elastic complexity in emotionality that refused to meander one way or another. Without question, my least favorite aspect to a movie’s score or soundtrack is when it spoon-feeds audiences with the intended emotion, stepping on the free range of interpretation, but composer Paul Grimstad (Another Safdie collaborator) comprises so many unique tones to scenes that would otherwise flourish as one-dimensional, in turn working wonderfully with the film’s aforementioned unpredictability factors that have many directions to go within the motions of the characters.

NEGATIVES

Not everything is copacetic within the execution of “The Sweet East”, primarily with a structure in screenplay and editing techniques that consistently smothered the momentum needed to churn out something reputable. Because the film is cut into quarters, with Lillian spending time in a new state with new characters, the individualized parts are never given a chance to breathe impacts or develop the characters or suspense factors in each section, making them feel like uniquely compelling ideas each on their own, but together a Frankenstein submerged science project that consistently starts over between each abrupt ending with little to no satisfying resolution to their various conflicts. For my money, the Simon Rex section is easily the most compelling of the entire film for me, but it’s only for 20 minutes of the duration, and features a resolution involving a plot device that virtually comes out of nowhere from the established proceedings. As for the editing, I previously gave much adoration to the film’s presentational production values that conjured emphasis towards the kind of spotty environments that Williams reveled in, but on the pasting perspective, isn’t able to avoid the kind of awkward transitions involving pocketed gaps in the various resolutions. This is especially prominent in the third storyline of the film, involving Lillian on a movie set, where the edits become overtly flashy in ways that are distracting to the integrity and cohesiveness of the narrative, and while it all could be argued as an element of uncomfortability from Williams intention, I feel like the cuts during this particular section did a grave disservice to the investment factor of the exposition casually dispersed, leading to what was easily the section of the film where the duration and repetition of the script started to wear on me. It’s also obvious that Williams goes for a lot of humor in the expansion of his various established worlds, but it rarely if ever worked effectively for me, especially bordering so many uncomfortable situations that made it difficult to laugh at. Much credit to Williams and screenwriter Nick Pinkerton for trusting themselves with the material, especially during such politically incorrect conflicts that would make less capable helmers squirm, but the punchlines rarely landed for me in ways that could’ve helped with the flatlining momentum, instead leading to little levity between so much underlining tension. Finally, while the performances make the most of the occasion, the characterization itself is a little thinly one-dimensional, leaving it difficult to invest or justify the actions of Lillian, especially when she is anything other than our typical honored protagonist. I appreciate that Pinkerton inscribes her with the kind of complexity that doesn’t compartmentalize her in one category of good or evil, but rather the shade of grey in the middle, however her lies and devious manipulation make it difficult to prescribe empathy towards any bleak situation she consistently finds herself in. At least the ending does somewhat illustrate her discontent with life and her motivation with running away in the first place, but I never felt like I truly understood the character, and as a result my investment never elevated from my initial experiences with her.

OVERALL
“The Sweet East” is a promising but flawed directorial debut from Sean Price Williams, whose uniquely unhinged and imaginative depiction for real world conflicts wields an unforgettably pungent sociological satire, with many colorful personalities to boot. Though the film’s overcomplicated and scattershot structure leaves it tragically shallow, and the script’s comedic elements never materialize towards anything meaningful, the film is nonetheless an ambitiously insightful delve into the annonymity of Generation Z that echoes Alice In Wonderland, by way of a coming-of-age narrative, outlining a gritty, grimy stage where Talia Ryder feels most comfortable shining on.

My Grade: 6/10 or C-