Holler

I enjoyed this. A very powerful performance from Jessica Barden!

A film about a young girl living in a town with few opportunities. Just to get by she has to help her brother steal trash that they go through for scrap metal. Which seems to be the only way of making any money in the town. This is probably the story of so many small towns in America. Manufacturing has definitely led to a dead end despite it's seemingly infinite promise throughout the 50s - the 2000s. The industry of industry is dying out. Jobs are sold to other countries because of globalization. Eventually they too will be writing stories like this one when capitalistic manufacturing reaches the end of it's road. Some other countries are just now experiencing their capitalist boom.

It tells the story of so many people these days. Poor. Addicted. Downtrodden. All of the actors did a fantastic job. There were a few parts that stuck out to me so the movie is "salvageable." I learned a little bit about what scrapping actually means and the film did a good job of metaphorically telling the tale of people who barely get by and must turn to the scraps.

One or two lines really stuck out for me and I wouldn't really call them spoilers but I'd love to share them: ("Talking to the guys in this town is all the birth control I'll ever need.")

("You'd scrap anything." ..."Yeah, so would you.") That was my favorite moment of the film.

Greetings again from the darkness. Life in the Midwest rustbelt is often portrayed in movies, but rarely with the authenticity displayed in the first feature film from writer-director Nicole Riegel. These are hard-working folks who maintain hope and keep pushing through the challenges brought on by the collapse of the factory world that left generations in its wake. It's a spinoff of Ms. Riegel's own 2015 short film of the same name, and the story is inspired by her own upbringing in Ohio.

Jessica Barden stars as Ruth, a very bright high school senior who is struggling along with her dropout older brother Blaze (Gus Halper) to make ends meet while mom (Pamela Adlon, the voice of Bobby on "King of the Hill") is in jail due to opioids. Dad is out of the picture. As smart as she is, Ruth is teetering on the line of graduation since she misses so much school time while hustling the streets with her brother looking for aluminum cans to redeem, or any other way to make a few bucks. Despite their lack of funds, Blaze submitted a college application for Ruth without her knowing, and now that she's been accepted, money becomes the focus.

Desperation leads to poor decisions, and soon Ruth and Blaze are working for Hark (Austin Amelio, "The Walking Dead") the owner of a local metal scrap yard. At night, brother and sister join the crew for illegal scrapping at closed factories. It's dangerous work, but the pay is good. The dynamic between older brother Blaze and younger sister Ruth is interesting. He realizes his future looks something like what he's doing now - scratching and clawing for everything. But he sees that Ruth has a path to a brighter future and he strives to keep her focused on that.

Family is key here, and Ruth struggles with how best to deal with her mother. It takes Aunt Linda (Becky Ann Baker, A SIMPLE PLAN, 1998) to explain how Ruth's mother is a victim of the medical profession over-prescribing the pain killers that caused the downfall. In a town that's slowly dying (plants closing), and folks fighting to stay out of poverty, this situation is all too common.

Jessica Barden is memorable from her turn as the friend in HANNA (2011) and from THE END OF THE F***ING WORLD (2017), but this could be a star-making role for her. She is outstanding in much the way Jennifer Lawrence was in WINTER'S BONE (2010), although this movie isn't quite at that level. It's a star turn for Ms. Barden and an impressive debut for director Riegel, who shot in 16mm film - a rarity for indie films. The story and characters are never quite as bleak as what we expect, though the ending is a bit too predictable ... and we are happy for it. You might want to see this one if for no other reason than it's a likely career turning point for both Jessica Barden and Nicole Riegel.

OPENS IN SELECT THEATERS AND ON DEMAND/DIGITAL ON FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2021.

Literally it was the best one for its story. I was so much connected with the story that I dont ever wanna see its end. There were no twists no action no nothing just a beautiful story awesome dialogues and perfect acting makes it a fabulous film. This movie is someone who have patience and love to watch story based films. By the way I dont like ending so much,I was thinking that there should be something bad with that owner of scrap. But it was nothing like that,yeah but who cares still a good ending.

Depressing topic but just right for everything and so real and good drama and leading actress just awesome ! Nothing huge about this movie but just got its charm.