Holler movie review & film summary (2021)
Once Ruth and Blaze join Hark's scrappers, the emphasis shifts, and "Holler" becomes kind of a crime picture. The activity re-centers on Hark's home in the forest, which has the feel of a party house or a gang's headquarters: beer, weed, deafening music, chortling laughter, macho preening, women sitting on crew guys' laps. Hark shows off a crossbow. There are guns on the walls.
You can tell that Blaze and (to a lesser extent) Ruth have lived (relatively) more sheltered lives and are liberated by the danger and edgy camaraderie of Hark's world. Nobody robs an armored car or a bank. It's not that kind of film. But this type of scrapping is quasi-legal or illegal, and from the plethora of buzz saws and crushing machines to the risk of getting shot by security guards, there's no shortage of ways a person could get maimed or killed. Ruth is a natural at her new gig—so good that Hark starts grooming her as a sidekick, and perhaps something else—but she's also smart enough to know that the path she's heading down is a dark one.
It's great to see Baker, Adlon, Amelio, and other superb, lesser-known actors playing believable, real-world supporting characters, all rich enough to merit a feature of their own. Their work really pops, and it's contextualized by the lead performances of Halper (of "Cold Pursuit" and TV's "Madam Secretary") and Barden (of Channel 4's "The End of the F*****g World"), which are more reactive and internal. You watch the two of them as they watch everyone else.
The peak of Halper and Barden's teamwork happens in a scene at a roller rink. Blaze makes out by the video games with his girlfriend, a manipulative, grabby young factory worker that Ruth thinks is trying to trap her brother having his baby. Meanwhile, Ruth skates around the rink with Hark, who is drunk and shamelessly flirting with her. Brother and sister glare at each other in reproach and warning. There's no intelligible dialogue in the scene. Sometimes the characters aren't even speaking. But you feel the weight of everything that's happening and what it means for the family. The actors say it all with their faces. When people use the word "cinematic," this is one of the scenes they should be thinking of.
"Holler" is a drum-tight feature (90 minutes, including credits), packed like the proverbial single suitcase that you're allowed to fill before fleeing a house fire. The details are chosen so judiciously that the story seems to expand as you recall it. The setting is based on Jackson, Ohio, the filmmaker's hometown, and much of the story is told from Ruth's point-of-view. It's easy to see where the script's sense of lived experience and emotional truth comes from. Unlike a lot of people in the entertainment industry, Riegel doesn't represent the third or fourth generation in a showbiz dynasty, nor did she come from a family that made a comfortable living in some other business and supported her while while she spent several years interning at Disney or CAA. She grew up poor and served in the Army before turning to filmmaking. There are filmmakers from privileged backgrounds who appreciate what it means to struggle, but even the best sometimes make you feel as if it's all a bit abstract to them. You sense their sympathy for the weight of the struggle, but not the weight itself.
