Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Talia Ryder, Simon Rex, Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy O. Harris, Jacob Elordi
Intro:
Provocative, surreal, and wandering seemingly without purpose, The Sweet East feels like an uncomfortable dream you can’t quite shake after waking.
In a world of cinema oversaturated with superheroes and CGI villains, a passive protagonist who isn’t trying to change the world around them for the better or worse, but instead moves through the story with no solid goal beyond survival and personal gain, is actually refreshing.
A typical senior class trip to Washington DC devolves into chaos when a Q-Anon shooter targets a seemingly innocuous pizza joint. Rather than unravel at the sight of violence, Lillain (Talia Ryder) spies an opportunity to break away from her fellow South Carolina classmates, slipping out through the labyrinthian tunnels beneath the pizza place and on to her own personal cross-country odyssey.
From the early scenes of Lillian breaking into song while locked away in a grimy bathroom covered in graffiti, all shot on 16mm film, with a candid and anachronistic feel, it’s immediately obvious that director Sean Price Williams isn’t afraid to take this journey off the rails. A frequent collaborator with Alex Ross Perry and the Safdie Brothers, Price Williams is an experienced cinematographer making the transition to director, bringing with him a kind of dreamlike energy to both the visuals and the narrative of Lillian’s story.
The script written by critic Nick Pinkerton is purposefully making an effort to shock. Cynical and derisive, it’s a satire of the modern world of activism and terrorism that we find ourselves immersed in. From punk rock wannabe antifascists to white supremacists camouflaged as university lecturers (Simon Rex delivering an uncomfortably captivating performance as a Poe-obsessed Neo Nazi academic with a kink for self-denial), Lillian encounters them all on a meandering tour of Americana subcultures.
Price William’s penchant for close-ups and Talia Ryder’s superb ability to react through micro-expressions as her character is monologued at again and again, are truly an ideal pairing. While her beauty is a defining feature of the character, allowing Lillian to move freely through each new space and manipulate those around her to meet her own needs, her attractiveness is very much a weapon in her arsenal rather than something to be glamourised. She’s a chameleon, absorbing pieces of the personalities of those she encounters and repurposing them for her own gain, moving untouched and unbothered through a world of imminent violence, learning no lessons along the way, and seeking nothing more than personal freedom.
While Lillian herself is never the instigator of the action that surrounds her, the cast of unconventional side-characters she meets are more than dynamic enough to make up for it. Simon Rex’s abstinent extremist, Jacob Elordi’s Hollywood heartthrob, and Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy O. Harris’ eccentric filmmakers, riffing off of one another in an improvised audition scene, and bubbling with a kind of joyful humour that shines bright amongst the satirical cynicism of this Mad Hatter’s tea party that Lillain has found herself in.
Provocative, surreal, and wandering seemingly without purpose, The Sweet East feels like an uncomfortable dream you can’t quite shake after waking.
