This is definitely not the worst movie I have ever seen! But it definitely moves very slowly with a depressing storyline that is very difficult to follow. An hour in, frankly, I'm still not very sure of the storyline itself. Honestly, I had to refer to online reviews to understand it other than the fact that it revolves around lost, broken black men and religion. In fact, the storyline is so poorly drawn compounded with the way the camera often pans in and out, one initially believes there may be sexual abuse of Jeremiah by his father given the heavy use of alcohol in some of the scenes. Thankfully I guess that's not the case. The cinematography really threw me because some of the scenes are so dark that I literally cannot make out what's happening. At other times, the outdoor scenes are really beautiful and well done. The characters are quite one-dimensional which is also unfortunate. Jeremiah is something of a prop because we really don't know anything about him. The father is also largely just a shadowy drunk. Toward the end, we get rushed information about him through a single narrative/conversation but it would have been nice to have found out more about his life progressively throughout the film. We don't really understand how he came to be a drunk. Obviously, he wasn't born a drunk. Did he ever work? Did he ever leave this area and come back? Was he ever NOT depressed? He nearly becomes a ghost before we know anything about how he actually lived. Same with the stereotypical Pastor. By now, I think we've seen enough films from scarred black people who have been to churches with fallen pastors. Not every Pastor in the black church is shady though. Just want to put that out there. Anyway, the film could have been clearer but for a 19 year old, I'm going to give him some leeway.
Review of Burning Cane
