Movie Review: Burning Cane

Burning Cane *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Phillip Youmans.

Written by: Phillip Youmans.

Starring: Wendell Pierce (Reverend Tillman), Karen Kaia Livers (Helen Wayne), Dominique McClellan (Daniel Wayne), Braelyn Kelly (Jeremiah Wayne), Cynthia Capers (Marsha Bland), Emyri Crutchfield (Sherry Bland), Erika Woods (Dianne).

 

That writer/director Phillip Youmans was only 19-years-old, and still a NYU film student when he made Burning Cane is remarkable to me. This is a film full of potential – who already has an innate sense of where to place the camera in each and every scene in his debut feature. The film will likely recall for some the early films of Terrence Malick or David Gordon Green – with a little bit of Charlies Laughton’s Night of the Hunter torn in, or perhaps a little Charles Burnett. That Youmans has drawn on such varied inspirations though, and synthesized it something else, shows his innate skill and originality. Yes, the plotting and the characters in Burning Cane are more than a little thin – the film doesn’t even run 80-minutes, and I’m not convinced by its closing moments. Still, there is no denying the skill Youmans has – and the potential for greatness that this film shows.

 

The film opens with voiceover narration by Helen Wayne (Karen Kaia Livers) – talking about her beloved dog, Jojo, who has the mange – and all the different home remedies she has tried – and of course, they have all failed. She lives somewhere in the poor, rural South – a place in which time seems to have forgotten – the cars, and a reference to the tolerance of boys in dresses, really the only signs that the film is taking place today – otherwise, it may then be any time since the 1960s or so. Helen is a powerful female character – even if she’s older and walks slowly with a limp, she is still the only character in the film who is a true believer – who is truly interested in being good.

 

The two other major characters in the film are both men. There is the Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce – brilliant) – and fire and brimstone preacher in the black church, who is also a drunk, and getting worse since his wife died – shortly after revealing how miserable she was being married to him, and having to mop up her own blood, in scenes we do not see. We hear a lot of Tillman’s sermons – but it’s clear he doesn’t live up to the standards he sets for his congregation. The other major character is Daniel (Dominique McClellan) – Helen’s son. He is also a drunk, with a cigarette constantly dangling from his lips, newly unemployed, and not doing much to fix that. Being unemployed means he now spends more time with his son – the almost completely silent Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly) – and he is teaching him the ways to become a man, in ways that are borderline abusive. He goes well past that border line with his wife Sherry (Emyri Crutchfield) – who now supports the whole family, and angers him by “nagging” him.

 

This is a world where God is talked about a lot – but most of the people doing the talking aren’t very good at following his word. It is a world where the patriarchy still reigns supreme – in part because of those sermons by Tillman, that have filtered in so deep that even if Daniel isn’t hearing them anymore, that have shaped his worldview. In this insular, rural community what else stands in the way of the evil – other than people like Helen?

 

As I said, the runtime is slight at 77-minutes, the story is told more in impressions than narrative – scenes and moments, voice overs and feelings, etc. than in traditional terms. Visually, the film is excellent – with Youmans camera either there to capture glimpses of these moments from a perspective of an outside observe, sneaking a peek at the secrets in town. The only interior life we hear is Helen’s – but that’s more about her dog than anything, or her conviction to do the right thing. The rest of the characters we are left to judge ourselves.

 

Burning Cane isn’t a great film – but it has the feel of the first film by a great filmmaker – that feel of someone who is still figuring themselves out, but will get there – and soon. It wouldn’t surprise me if Youmans makes a truly great film – and sooner, rather than later.