A lyrical look at rural Louisiana and the characters making their way to elusive salvation.
Burning Cane
Grade: A-
Director: Philip Youmans
Screenplay: Youmans
Cast: Wendell Pierce (Clemency), Karen Kala Livers (Queen and Slim)
Runtime: 1h 17 m
By: John DeSando
“You will never be truly happy and fulfilled if you try to hang on to possessions.” Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce)
You can almost smell the cane burning in Phillip Youmans’ Burning Cane on Netflix. Such is the synesthetic cinematic experience that every word and every image carry weight on the sense and sensibility not ordinarily given to short films. While we can easily rely on the meaning of the pastor’s familiar intonation, the demanding drama will depict lives looking for meaning not in possessions.
The isolation characters feel and their lack of trust in God and each other form the dramatic foundation of this still beautiful and memorable film as homily. This brooding tone poem briefly lets you into the personal lives of deeply spiritual and flawed folks in the cane fields of rural Louisiana.
Tillman struggles with the depression of being a recent widower, and the demon bottle helps little. Just the same with Daniel (Dominique McClellan), only he’s a job widower, who listens little to mother Helen (Karen Kaia Livers), who listens to the Lord through the Bible. He is indeed her Shepard.
Not always bound to the dreamy world of worship, Helen reminds Daniel that his father died of AIDS. Besides the poetic qualities of this drama is the reality of life in general and rural poverty in particular. Youmans’ camera lingers in the passageways and corners to let you live with these complicated characters, never imposing anything more that deeply-felt emotion sometimes embodied in gospel tunes or in simple dialogue that says much more than it is.
Writer, director, cinematographer, and editor Philip Youmans won Best Narrative feature at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019 as well as Best Cinematography. Pierce won best actor. In other words, this well-pedigreed first feature from Youmans is worth your 77 min, for it embraces small lives with feeling. An enjoyable emotional experience.
BTW, Youmans was 19 when he launched this gem, a senior in high school.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com.
