First Hit: I’m not always a fan of revolving cameras and frame sizing to create a feeling, but this time it worked.
In an opening scene, Alexis (Alexa Demie) and Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are driving in a car. They are young, the music is blaring, and they are drunk on their love for each other and being young and alive. The camera keeps going in circles creating a feeling of erratic motion, and that something is going to happen. I kept holding on to my armrest thinking that an accident was coming soon. It didn’t.
This opening scene gave me a sense that the film was going to be a roller coaster of feelings because of all the joy in this scene and the spirit of impending doom riding in the background.
Tyler lives with his father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown), his stepmother Catharine (Renee Elise Goldsberry), and sister Emily (Taylor Russell). They are clearly middle class, and as a black man Ronald is very proud of his work ethic, what he’s achieved, and makes a point of instilling his driven work ethic in his children.
Tyler is on the wrestling team in high school. Ronald is very engaged with his son’s wrestling. He works with Tyler by practicing wrestling moves in their garage. He pushes him to be the best wrestler on the team. They not only practice wrestling moves in their garage; they also lift weights together, and they challenge each other while working out and wrestling. In one telling scene during a school wrestling match, after Tyler pins his opponent for a win, his father tells him if he would have made different moves, he would have pinned his opponent 20 seconds sooner.
So it wasn’t only about the win, but how fast and what moves Tyler performed in each match that was challenged by Ronald. What Ronald doesn’t know is that Tyler is hiding a shoulder injury from everyone, and the doctor is quite clear that the injury is so severe that he’ll have permanent damage if he continues to wrestle.
Tyler likes to party with his friends and is very popular at school. He and his girlfriend Alexis spend a lot of time together and are sexually active. During one text message exchange, she tells him her period’s late.
As the film proceeds, the pressure is building up in Tyler; his father is riding him to be better, his shoulder is irreparably damaged, which could cause him to lose his college scholarship, and his girlfriend is pregnant. His drinking is getting worse, he’s smoking more pot, and taking lots of pain pills. His life is spinning out of control.
When Tyler and Alexis go to the abortion clinic, she changes her mind and says she wants to keep the baby. Tyler goes ballistic, they get in a massive fight in the car, and she breaks up with him.
The tension in the film is enhanced by the use of different camera movements, image focus slipping, and color splashes only add to what is about to happen.
Violence breaks out, and Tyler finds a reason to express the rage within and without thinking hurts the people he loves and who love him. The tensions in Tyler’s life build to a point at which he can no longer control them. He commits a violent act, is arrested, and is sentenced to decades in jail.It ends up in an act to which he finds himself arrested and sentenced to jail.
Shortly after that, Tyler’s sister Emily, who has been nearly a forgotten person in the family, meets Luke (Lucas Hedges). The early scenes of their meeting and getting to know each other are magnificently done. They feel real and authentic to the characters. Both are damaged in different ways. Luke because of his father’s alcoholic rages and because his father left him and his mother. Emily, because she’s the forgotten one in the family and is now embarrassed because she’s the sister of her once-popular imprisoned brother.
When the film moves into this new story, the relationship between Luke and Emily, I started wondering where it was headed. Then I started worrying about Emily because she began to party and experiment with pot in the same way her brother did. I thought more trouble was brewing.
However, the story unfolds towards the power of forgiveness and speaking openly and truthfully. As Emily supports Luke in his healing, she, herself, is being healed.
I am not a fan of camera movement becoming a significant part of the story, but for some reason it worked. I could have used less of the swirling circular motions, but it did add to the sensation the film was attempting to make.
Also, as I recently wrote, I reviewed a different film recently, I’m not a big fan of changing the image size on the screen as a way to affect the viewer. But again, here it worked. At times it was letterbox style, other times almost portrait, like what one sees from a phone video, and at other times it was full screen. This is a story about a family on a journey through love, tough times, tragedy, and forgiveness, it worked.
Harrison Jr. was compelling as the young man attempting to live up to his father’s ideals, failing, and spiraling out of control. The angst leading to his lashing out is probably familiar to many a young man. Russell was sublime as Harrison’s younger sister, who had to come out of the shadows to be seen and own her own life. Demie was wonderful as Harrison’s girlfriend, who didn’t want to be controlled and wanted her feelings to be heard and honored. Brown as Harrison’s dad was terrific. His portrayal of a man who was blinded by his own work and not seeing the effect it was having on his wife and kids was convincing. Goldsberry was terrific as the stepmother who empathized with the kids and struggled to find her place when her husband refused to be empathic to her pain. Hedges was excellent as Russell’s boyfriend, who reached out in her time of need, and in turn was supported by her when he needed to deal with his own past. Trey Edward Shults wrote a strong and powerful script which he then in-turn directed. As a director he knew what he wanted, and I, for one, liked what he did.
Overall: This film captured the power of love and forgiveness over the expression of anger.