Sep 10

Sep 10 TIFF 2020 film review: 'Holler'

With a head-turning lead performance and a grimly authentic backdrop, the naturalistic drama 'Holler' (screening during the 45th Toronto International Film Festival) forces an unflinching spotlight on those the surging stock market left behind.

In short: In an industrial town with few-to-no job prospects, siblings Ruth (Jessica Barden) and Blaze (Gus Halper) barely survive on the edge of poverty. Ruth is offered a chance to leave her dreary town behind, but it means taking a risky job at a metal scrap yard. Also stars Austin Amelio (‘The Walking Dead’) and Pamela Adlon (‘Better Things’).

Desperation is one of the great motivators in storytelling. And within the first 10 minutes, 'Holler' makes it abundantly clear Ruth and Blaze are in an increasingly desperate bind. Writer-director Nicole Riegel's film is a stark reflection of an economy that has abandoned the working class, leaving them with fewer and fewer choices just to keep the utilities from being turned off.

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The world Riegel has crafted has an unnervingly familiarity. The handheld camerawork keeps the film intimate and its 16mm cinematography adds grit to an already bleak and authentic milieu. The film's textured craftsmanship of this Anytown, Ohio anchors the film with the specificity of layoffs and plant closures, with a vagueness that this could be virtually be any industrial town teetering on economic collapse.

Barden is simply stellar as the whip-smart and world-wary Ruth. She's the perfect cross section of wide-eyed youth and a jaded, practical teen. There's an ever-present, coiled intensity behind Ruth's eyes - the eyes of a young woman denied a care-free childhood. Ruth absolutely looks tired of hearing her mother's excuses for the thousandth time, and also perfectly content in escaping her world by burying herself within the pages of 'Madame Bovery.'

Even amid the desolate hopeless of this small town in decline, 'Holler' has an unlikely and sweet core, defined by Ruth and Blaze's endearing relationship. It's honestly the one ray of hope and light in a town where hope seems lost - or at least laid off. While everyone else in town shoots down any aspirations Ruth might have in the world, Blaze has one basic, overriding guiding light: he simply wants better for his sister than what his town can offer. It's this idiosyncratically optimistic and sweet core that saves 'Holler' from spiraling into total and utter despair.

Final verdict: Riegel has cemented herself as a filmmaker to watch with this stirring feature-length directorial debut and Barden shows there's no upper limit to her potential.