Holler: Film Review
The film opens up with a young woman rushing through an alley with two bags of recyclables. As she navigates twists and turns in a raging snowstorm, she loads up into a getaway car while a stranger, who couldn’t keep up, shouts out at them. This daring scheme, complimented by a discordant violin score from composer Gene Beck, gives a brief glimpse into what’s in store for the protagonist. Holler centers around Ruth, a high school student played by Jessica Barden, who is at a crossroads in her life. She’s got a bright head on her shoulders but with eviction notices piling up on their front door and the water turned off, her options feel limited. Her mother (the underused Pamela Adlon) is recovering from addiction at the county jail while her accomplice brother (Gus Halper) struggles to take care of the family. Their situation is displayed frankly, as a common reality in their Ohioan factory town rather than as the odd ones out. Everyone is doing what they need to survive, and despite the hardships, they make the effort to take care of one another too.
The story hits its first conflict when Ruth is accepted into a college that her brother applied for behind her back, spending a much needed $75 in the process. Angered by his actions, she refuses. “My film is a semi-autobiographical story about how challenging it was to transcend where I came from as a young woman, both practically and emotionally,” director Nicole Riegel shared in a Director’s Statement about the film. “Like Ruth, the teenage girl at the center of my story, and many young girls across America, I was vulnerable to a fractured system that felt rigged against me, particularly when it came to access to education for young people living in the margins. That lack of access made me feel like my voice didn’t matter, and that is a horrible feeling for any young girl to carry with her. In order to pursue the life that I wanted, I had to leave behind the family and community that created me which felt like a betrayal. Holler is not only a glimpse into that part of my life, but also a window into the lives of thousands of girls who, like Ruth, live in towns that are currently in a state of atrophy from fewer opportunities and a shrinking population. They are faced with the choice of forced reinvention or abandoning their hometowns completely.”
Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.
Despite being a deeply American story, the film got its first festival screenings in Canada and France following the cancellation of SXSW. Much like the battle cry of the film’s name, it was an uphill battle for Riegel to make the film she wanted to bring to life. She wanted to shoot on 16 mm film but would-be producers told her no. She wanted the lead to be a female to reflect her own story but some potential financiers wanted to keep the story about two young men like the short of the same name featured as its leads. Fortunately she found a supportive group in production company Level Forward and a hand up from actor-director Paul Feig so she would be able to steer the film into the direction she wanted. In an interview with Kodak, Riegel revealed, “It’s a movie about a people and place that feel left behind. To me nothing feels more abandoned or left behind than 16mm.” There were still some sacrifices to be made, such as storylines and plots dropped to be able to afford to shoot on film, but in the end the opportunity to create a vastly personal tale was achieved.
Ruth also works to overcome barriers throughout Holler by taking up a job opportunity with a sketchy, crossbow-wielding junk shop owner to collect scrap metal from abandoned factories, affectionately dubbed “modern day goldmines,” to be used for manufacturing overseas. The work is extremely physically taxing, causing injuries to her body, and the late night scavenging doesn’t provide safe conditions. It’s in this pocket where she comes face-to-face with the realities ahead of her: She could be like him, swindling to get by and dealing with the consequences that come alongside that path, or she can break away. She needs to consciously make the decision of what her future can be instead of merely following the paths available in front of her.
Often Ruth can feel a bit hardened due to the harsh environments she’s surrounded in, but it’s in a scene at a local roller rink where her character can be mistakable for any other teen. Her story isn’t new for many, but seeing it on screen can help reach out to those who can’t see themselves in the stories normally told in commercial media. “We pass girls like Ruth every day in towns all across America, but we never really consider what’s going in their lives, their struggles at home, their hopes and their dreams,” Riegel included towards the end of her statement. “After watching Holler, I hope audiences take a moment to think about the Ruths who are slipping through the cracks, and I especially hope that the Ruths who see the film feel like they have been seen, and that it inspires in them a sense of possibility.”
Holler is currently playing in select theaters and available on VOD.
