Burning Cane was created by Phillip Youmans when he was 17, still in high school (he's 19 now). Shot in the style of Cinéma vérité, it's difficult to follow as the film is poorly lit with dialogue that is often difficult to hear. The film won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival and generally has some very positive reviews from the critics who have reviewed it. Youmans has even been likened to Faulkner and Terrence Malik.
The story is set in Louisiana, focusing on church-going African Americans. The main character (who begins the film with a long monologue about finding the right remedies for her dog who's afflicted with some sort of rash), is the grandmother, Helen (Karen Kaia Livers)--she faces an uphill struggle in trying to motivate her son Daniel (Dominique McClennan), who's unemployed and has taken to the bottle.
Also in the home is Daniel's son, the pre-teen Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly), who never says a word during the 77 minute running time of the film. Daniel feeds Jeremiah milk laced with alcohol and one senses that he may have some developmental disabilities. There's also Daniel's wife who we hardly see at all and end's up a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband.
Helen's pastor, Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce) who also has a drinking problem, is probably the most interesting character in Youman's short opus. The Reverend plays a prominent role in the proceedings as we end up privy to some of his inspirational and captivating sermons. Youmans, however, has little luck in linking the good reverend's story up with what's happening back at Helen's homestead.
If you like "A Star is Born," you might like Burning Cane. It's a tale about sad sacks. One day perhaps the young Mr. Youmans will discover, that such characters do not make for good drama. I suppose it's supposed to be some kind of revelation that religious people also may be afflicted by addiction to the bottle. That might be okay if you're able to make your characters somewhat likable, or give them some idiosyncrecies.
Unfortunately the incredibly young Mr. Youmans is content to play up the drunkard angle-and you will undoubtedly end up leaving the theater exclaiming, "so what!" His is a film that goes nowhere, with characters that you will not care about.
In order to care, I would advise Mr. Youmans next time to create characters that like themselves-for characters with ego is the path to earning true and DESERVING accolades in the world of cinema. Unfortunately, for various reasons that I will not go into here, he has already received some specious approbation from a coterie of misguided critics.
The best course is perhaps for this young man to start from scratch with a new project, completely unrelated to the heavy handed script that so many have already hailed as the product of an up and coming wunderkind.
The story is set in Louisiana, focusing on church-going African Americans. The main character (who begins the film with a long monologue about finding the right remedies for her dog who's afflicted with some sort of rash), is the grandmother, Helen (Karen Kaia Livers)--she faces an uphill struggle in trying to motivate her son Daniel (Dominique McClennan), who's unemployed and has taken to the bottle.
Also in the home is Daniel's son, the pre-teen Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly), who never says a word during the 77 minute running time of the film. Daniel feeds Jeremiah milk laced with alcohol and one senses that he may have some developmental disabilities. There's also Daniel's wife who we hardly see at all and end's up a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband.
Helen's pastor, Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce) who also has a drinking problem, is probably the most interesting character in Youman's short opus. The Reverend plays a prominent role in the proceedings as we end up privy to some of his inspirational and captivating sermons. Youmans, however, has little luck in linking the good reverend's story up with what's happening back at Helen's homestead.
If you like "A Star is Born," you might like Burning Cane. It's a tale about sad sacks. One day perhaps the young Mr. Youmans will discover, that such characters do not make for good drama. I suppose it's supposed to be some kind of revelation that religious people also may be afflicted by addiction to the bottle. That might be okay if you're able to make your characters somewhat likable, or give them some idiosyncrecies.
Unfortunately the incredibly young Mr. Youmans is content to play up the drunkard angle-and you will undoubtedly end up leaving the theater exclaiming, "so what!" His is a film that goes nowhere, with characters that you will not care about.
In order to care, I would advise Mr. Youmans next time to create characters that like themselves-for characters with ego is the path to earning true and DESERVING accolades in the world of cinema. Unfortunately, for various reasons that I will not go into here, he has already received some specious approbation from a coterie of misguided critics.
The best course is perhaps for this young man to start from scratch with a new project, completely unrelated to the heavy handed script that so many have already hailed as the product of an up and coming wunderkind.