Holler, from director Nicole Riegel, is part of a trilogy about low income women from different backgrounds. Jessica Barden stars as Ruth, a high school senior in a dying Ohio town who finds a way to make it to college.
Holler is the second Nicole Riegel film I’ve reviewed from the trilogy. The first was Dandelion. This one tells a powerful story about a high school senior in a town where jobs dry up because factories are closed.
Ruth is smart. Very smart. But she misses a lot of school because she and her brother Blaze (Gus Halper) try to make ends meet by recycling aluminum cans. Their mom (Pamela Adlon) is in jail. They come home each day to eviction notices on the front door.
Blaze mailed in a college application that Ruth filled out but decided not to mail. When they learn she’s been accepted, they have to find a way to make more money. Ruth doesn’t want to leave Blaze. Blaze feels differently – he wants her to take the opportunity.
Hark (Austin Amelio), a semi sketchy man who buys their aluminum suggests they could work for him gathering scrap metal and make more money. Plus he would give them a place to stay in his house.
What gathering scrap metal really means is going around to closed factories and stealing all the copper and other metal they can. Hark sells it to China. Blaze and Ruth start doing this dangerous work.
They do make a lot more money, but it’s not safe. When Ruth tells her mom she wants to go to college, her mother says, “We aren’t college people.” Her teachers discourage the idea, too. Only Blaze see it as a path for her to get away from their situation.
Their mom’s best friend Linda (Becky Ann Baker) works in the last remaining factory. Then it closes. The situation at the scrap yard becomes untenable and Ruth stays with Linda for a while. She finally makes up her mind about her future, which brings the film to a hopeful close.
Jessica Barden did a terrific job in this part. It was a physically demanding role with her tossing chunks of steel and iron around, operating grinders to cut through metal, and running a lot.
The cinematography was powerful. Images of the decaying town as it dried up with job loss were well chosen. Shots of Ruth running the grinder were spectacular. The grimy scrap yard and the dark rooms in Hark’s house and office were telling. Nicole Riegel wrote and directed this low budget look at the lives of struggling Americans. This isn’t some magical Nora Ephron world, this is the real America where life is hard and finding a better way is rare.
You can see this film on AMC+ or rent it on Amazon.
Discover more from Old Ain't Dead
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.