THE SWEET EAST - Mark Reviews Movies

The Sweet East, Utopia Distribution

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 14, 2023

It's difficult to tell what Lillian (Talia Ryder), the ever-adjusting protagonist of The Sweet East, wants. That's typically true of anyone of her age, since she's still in high school, and likely true of people coming of age in this particular age, when everything that anyone could want to occupy one's time is merely a device and an internet connection away. Still, Lillian is bored and, ultimately, kind of boring as the central figure of a movie.

To be clear, Ryder is quite good in this role, as a teenager who's annoyed by just about everything and everyone—including her inability to find a purpose and herself. It's just that the character herself is so vacant—albeit, intentionally so—that it's hard to care about her lack of direction or to find much to admire in her ability to adapt to a string of lucky coincidences.

Those situations could make her famous, if she plays them correctly, or infamous, if she doesn't. In today's social and political climate, though, is there really much of a difference to those who seek to be known?

The questions raised by director Sean Price Williams and screenwriter Nick Pinkerton's movie are far more intriguing than the story itself. It features a handful of vignettes about Lillian's almost-accidental journey from her home in small-town South Carolina, north toward and into rural Vermont, and inevitably back again. Along the way, she meets a collection of colorful, odd, and/or troublesome characters, each of whom wants something from Lillian and from whom she receives information or material goods that, conveniently, directly help her on the next leg of her travels.

Those characters are probably about as dull and repetitive as Lillian, since they all have some singular focus on one aspect of their life and the world. At least, though, they have something to say in general and about modern culture—as shallow or troubling as those things may be.

Lillian just goes along, because she doesn't have a plan beyond escaping her boring life at home. Maybe that's the filmmakers' point: that this upcoming generation is ready to fall for anything, because they stand for nothing, or is simply some new breed of shapeshifting humanity, who can be anything or anyone except for themselves. Again, the broad ideas here are fascinating to consider, even if the movie itself doesn't really have much to say about them, except in the broadest of terms.

The little we see of Lillian's home life is that she's bored, lying in bed after having sex with a classmate with dreams of making it big online somehow. After that, she's off to Washington, D.C., on a class field trip, where Lillian sings a mournful song in the bathroom of a pizza joint, noticing that we're watching her through the reflection of a mirror. The tune is interrupted by a series of gunshots. Someone has stormed the restaurant, demanding that owner show him the basement where he believes a bunch of children are being trafficked.

In case it isn't clear from this brief episode, Pinkerton's screenplay is very much of the present day and the incredibly recent past in terms of its view of American culture and society. There's this ripped-from-the-headlines moment, but there's also the strange group with whom Lillian flees from the commotion.

They're a collective of artists and activists, who have some major event planned in the city the following day. Lillian never figures out what that is, because performance artist Caleb (Earl Cave) is too busy showing off his latest piece and too eager for her to see his genital piercing for her to learn it. Eventually, she'll it, although we're hard-pressed to make that connection by the time the moment arrives.

It doesn't matter, anyway. From there, Lillian ends up in an odd living arrangement with Lawrence (Simon Rex), whom she meets at a different gathering in the woods. He's an academic and a neo-Nazi, but none of that matters to her. All Lillian cares about is the room he lets her sleep in, the food he provides, and a trip to New York City, prompted by a mysterious bag from a tattooed associate, on which she can tag along.

The remaining two episodes have Lillian becoming a lead actor in an independent movie, being made by rambling filmmakers Molly (Ayo Edebiri) and Matthew (Jeremy O. Harris). It stars a British actor named Ian (Jacob Elordi) who's famous enough that him being spotted with Lillian is enough to make tabloid headlines. The final one has Lillian in hiding on an abandoned farm, where movie crewmember Mo (Rish Shah) and some others have set up camp. Its potential political aims make the entire movie subplot feel completely out of place, except as a way to bridge the gap between the segments on the other sides of it with an eruption of violence that's as awkwardly staged as it is contrived.

It's pretty obvious that Lillian is intended to be a nobody, flitting about aimlessly and making do on being wanted by these people for assorted reasons. The Sweet East, ultimately, feels as aimless as her, though, both in plot and in whatever thematic point it's trying to make via this empty vessel of a character.

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