Best known for his work as a cinematographer, Sean Price Williams has brought his rough and ready aesthetic to independent hits such as Good Time, Funny Pages, and Her Smell. Fantasy drama The Sweet East marks his directorial debut and sees him doubling down on his experimental approach and follows high schooler Lillian (Talia Ryder) on a field trip to Washington, D.C.
After meeting punk rocker Caleb (Earl Cave) during a raucous night at an arcade bar, she ditches her class and embarks on a dangerous series of misadventures across the Eastern seaboard. On her travels she encounters college professor Lawrence (Simon Rex), filmmaker Molly (Ayo Edebiri) and famous movie star Ian (Jacob Elordi) and brings trouble with her wherever she goes.
Fitting with the frenetic energy of the piece, the loose narrative structure gives the director an evolving canvas to express his creativity. Playing with weird sound design, strange visual textures, and animation in short spells, he crafts an absurd vision of the American Dream. Each chapter of the plot is quite unrefined, some working more effectively than others but each carrying its own threat to Lillian. However, we would be foolish to underestimate our slacker Gen-Z protagonist. The perilous situations she gets herself into make us fear for her safety, in particular a dalliance with a much older man who happens to be a white supremacist, but she is wily too, and the mumblecore-esque script from critic turned screenwriter Nick Pinkerton presents a few surprises.
With the likes of Elordi and Edebiri breaking through in the past year or so, the cast couldn’t feel more on-trend in 2024. Their turns are relatively brief but their presence will help to get eyes on the film and on Talia Ryder’s superb central turn. She’s had small roles in West Side Story and Dumb Money and was great in the highly acclaimed Never Rarely Sometimes Always, so this central part feels deserved. She’s well suited for the heady tone of this tale; cool but vulnerable, street-smart yet naïve, a walking contradiction on a destructive path of moral ambiguity.
Sean Price Williams continues to rage against convention with his angsty, chaotic brand of lo-fi indie filmmaking. His feature debut The Sweet East is a messy testament to this, going against the grain with his own signature style of scuzzy grain.
Cinema Perspective 