The Sweet East

The movie follows a girl named Lillian, who, on a whim, decides to run away and embarks on a journey across America. Along the way, she encounters a series of extreme characters, each representing different facets of society.

Lillian to written to be as apathetic, opinionated, and jaded and for most the movie she remains this way. So I think Lillian serves as a lens through which we observe these encounters, not an actual driver of the plot simply there.

Interestingly, she remains largely unchanged by the experiences she goes through, which for me raises questions about her character's depth. While the diverse individuals she meets have profound stories and perspectives, Lillian's lack of development can make it feel like we're missing out on deeper reflections on these interactions.

This is why the story might have benefited from being a series rather than a standalone film. In a show format, Lillian could have had the space to reflect on her experiences, allowing her character to evolve in response to the people she meets. She doesn't have to change as a person because I think how she was written is also central to the message of the movie but there simply isn't enough breathing room in the movie, and there would have been some wonderfully emotional scenes if there was just the chance to.

High school student Lillian (Talia Ryder) and her classmates from South Carolina are on a field trip to Washington, D. C. She sets off on her own to have a series of rambling adventures.

Lillian is the bohemian pixie dream girl, a cousin of the manic pixie dream girl. She's more chilled. She goes on a meandering 70's style journey into outsider America. I'm intrigued by her trip for the first half. She's cute and is that girl. After about an hour, the movie goes off the rails. It does something completely ridiculous. The quirky rambling series of new friends becomes a rather silly random event. At that point, the movie loses me and it never gets me back.

Just here to say I loved the film. The dialogue is well written, made me laugh and snigger throughout. Simon Rex and Talia Ryder got me glued to the screen. Now I'll have to follow whatever these two are starring in next..

The story of the Sweet East starts with a song, sung by a continuously sullen Lillian.. I loved the song and thought this was such a good way to introduce the audience to the character, because everything you need to know about Lillian is in the delivery of the song.

Then begins a 'coming of age' story, following this smart yet clueless, single-minded yet insecure girl.

It really reminded me of my own teenage self and the way I imitated people, took over habits, was intimidated by peers, had power without realising it, got lost, screwed up, was approached by men, used my looks to my advantage and experimented with it with zero care about the impact it had on others.. I thought this was the most realistic depiction of female teenage-hood I've seen on film in a long time.

Really hope to see more from the director Sean Price Williams and the main actors. Talia Ryder Simon Rex and Ayo Edibiri particularly are very fun to watch.

I have never been to the east coast of North America but watching a film like The Sweet East informs me in surreal and unconventional fashion what a culturally specific and striking region it is. This is a film that won't be for everybody; it's terminally odd, episodic to the point of being untethered, fiercely dialogue driven in some areas and visually shocking in others, a challenging arthouse road picture shot on grainy film stock, wrestling through restless themes in unorthodox fashion with a protagonist who is just south of likeable and just north of antihero. Lillian (Talia Ryder) is a runaway teen who finds herself energetically propelled from one strange encounter to the next along the USA's eclectic eastern seaboard, meeting one bizarre character after another in a free flowing, stream of consciousness vernacular that feels like a twilight zone Americana heroes journey gone slightly awry. Going into this it felt very barebones indie but there are some jarringly recognizable faces peppered in amongst the ensemble including Ayo Edibiri (FX's The Bear), Jacob Elordi (Sofia Coppola's Priscilla) and a standout Simon Rex, an actor I know only for his goofy presence in Scary Movie 3 and whose verbose, eccentric middle aged scholar here was an utterly surprising addition. Many films like this strive to illustrate a sort of dark side to the American dream but this one starts Lillian at a place where that dream isn't even a feasible undertaking, and even when she achieves some semblance of it by accidentally stumbling into the film industry, it's quickly snatched away in almost cartoonishly violent, satirically grotesque form. Like it or hate it, a lot of beautiful creativity and thought (both conscious and unconscious) went into this film and I appreciate it for being such a singular piece of artistic expression. Plus who doesn't love weird s**t? It's like a poet hipster's answer to Midnite Movie grindhouse sensibility and that's something you don't see every day.

The 17-18 year old high school senior who is the supposedly "picaresque" main character in this flick is utterly obnoxious in her vacant, empty, amoral approach to life. In many ways she seems younger, more like a 13 or 14 year old perhaps who is worried about being seen as "cool" so she constantly degrades absolutely everything as boring. Furthermore, I recall at that age having ethics and even budding political beliefs, while Lillian blankly moves between anarchist, far right, and vaguely leftist groups with zero feeling or development of intellect.

A terrible incident occurs about 3/4 of the way through the film that is almost entirely her own fault. She is much too old to feign ignorance that the people whom she stole from were dangerous or that her bad behavior would result in significant consequences - in this case, death for innocent people whom she's lied to.

I don't find this film amusing, and the character isn't even believable as a young woman in her late teens. I have seen reviews comparing the effect of her character passing through American current events to Forrest Gump unwittingly witnessing 20th century history unfold in front of his naive face. However, Gump was a well-written, expertly acted, and ultimately sweet film about a kind but intellectually disabled man. The Sweet East is just is pretentious nonsense. Not even sure what the director was trying to say, the flick seems to hint that the film makers are guilty of pseudo-intellectual false equivalence comparing disparate 21st century American political views.