by Finnlay Dall
Worth: $12.80
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
First Films
Cast:
Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier, Chris Renois
Intro:
… an inventive debut, introducing us to a community not usually captured on film.
Outgrowing their small townhouse in the heart of Miami’s Little Haiti, Xavier – a demolition worker – has his eyes on a new property up for sale. With a spacious backyard, a furnished living room and a spot for his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) to do her dressmaking, it’s their dream home. However, he seems to be missing the mountains for the hills. Esperance notices the cracks in his plan – and the house itself – while he has barely any time or patience for their adolescent son Junior (Chris Renois), who sneaks out at night to pursue his passion of stand-up comedy, knowing his father would not approve. It soon becomes clear that Xavier is blind to the problems around him. He may be a part of the Haitian community, but his hyper-fixation on the American Dream has left him unable to be present in it.
Monica Sorelle’s debut feature is, first and foremost, a celebration of Haitian culture within Miami. Neighbours talk loudly on the phone, making it everybody’s business, home cooked meals and communal barbecues, as well as streets filled with lively marching bands: she pauses on these moments, letting us sink into a fully realised world. When Junior’s friend Farrell (Farley Louis) criticises his comedy routine for calling his parents “immigrant[s]”, he stresses the importance of specificity: “Listen, if it was a Cuban there, he would’ve said something about medianoche sandwiches… He would’ve showed you about the culture. You didn’t say nothing about us.”
Composer and electronic musician Dyani Douze compliments the film with a mix of traditional instrumentation and soft synths. The delightful variety of tones and genres help bring the film’s vision – a melting pot where modernity and tradition meet – to life. It’s at once nostalgic and excitingly new in a way that glues the film’s slower moments together.
Sorelle doesn’t just use culture as a bottle of pikliz: a hot sauce, sprinkled on top of the film to add a little bit of spice. Language is used to explore the class divisions inside of the culture itself. Most of Xavier’s upper-class friends and family speak traditional French. Xavier and Esperance, on the other hand, speak Creole, while Junior, being a second generation immigrant, defaults to English. Language is seen as a barrier in the film. Xavier’s boss Jorge (Serafin Falcon) and his nepotistic nephew, Chino (Yaniel Castillo) speak in Spanish to mask their racism. When Xavier is brought in to explain what happened between Chino and his fellow black co-worker Daniel (Roscoè B. Thické III), Chino is ‘reprimanded’ for causing the fight. However, Xavier overhears Jorge consoling Chino in Spanish, saying to not “let that Black stench get to [him]” and to get back to work. Due to living in the area for over twenty years, Xavier is able to pick up enough of what was said, recontextualising the abuse Daniel has been on the receiving end of.
Xavier is interesting as a character because he is both immersed in the culture that surrounds Little Haiti, like how he visits a Spanish food joint every day for lunch, but at the same time, clings to tradition, refusing to have the vendor’s hot sauce if it’s not pikliz. He sees ignorance reflected in those around him, but not himself. When he’s called out for his demolition company knocking down the local church – a community building that’s been “[th]ere for fifty years” – Xavier is very matter of fact about it. “They give me an address,” he says, “[And] I come…demolish it.” His complicity in his work – which he hopes will fund his new home – is ironically destroying the very culture that he fears losing. Hypnotised by the American Dream, Xavier actively takes part in gentrifying the neighbourhood, whether he knows it or not.
While this arc for Xavier certainly invites the curious, it also risks touching a dull nerve, simply because it doesn’t go any deeper. Sorelle no doubt creates a fresh view into Miami’s Haitian culture that is delightful to sit in, especially when every actor emanates such a warm, fun energy. However, the drama and story are often left behind as a result. We get glimpses of it through the aforementioned use of language, but other than that, its explorations of racism, class divide and intergenerational trauma feel underdeveloped. It’s one thing to ‘show’ the audience a culture and another thing to get them invested in it.
Sorelle crafts an inventive debut with Mountains, introducing us to a community not usually captured on film. However, while there is enough excellent detail to draw your own conclusions about this family drama, there’s just not enough scaffolding to maintain a story worth wholeheartedly investing in.
