Yelling to the Sky Blu-ray offers solid video and great audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
17-year-old Sweetness O'Hara (Zoe Kravitz), the daughter of mixed-race parents, struggles to find her place in the rough neighborhood she reluctantly calls home.
It's a hard-knock life for 17-year-old Sweetness, the guttersnipe heroine of Yelling to the Sky—played by Zoë Kravitz—and it gets much, much
harder before it gets any better. The film is the feature debut of actress-turned-writer/director Victoria Mahoney, who has crafted a semi-
autobiographical coming-of-age drama that's powerful and socially astute, if—like its streetwise protagonist—a little rough around the edges. Telling a
story about growing up poor in Queens with a white Irish father and a black mother, Mahoney explores how racial division, lack of opportunity, and the
influence of drugs make it all too easy for underprivileged urban kids to follow their parents into the cycle of poverty. It's an often brutal, depressive
film—a kitchen sink drama that deals with some heavy issues—but it also holds out the slightest glimmer of hope that through education and
empowerment, it's possible to escape. The director herself, I suppose, is living proof.
The disorienting opening scene gives us microcosmic glimpse of Sweetness' world. Pushing her bike with a friend through their lower middle class
neighborhood, the two girls are ambushed and antagonized by a gang of their peers, including the overweight Latonya (Gabourey Sidibe), who seems
to hate Sweetness for no other reason than, well, high school girls can be awful to one another. Latonya's boyfriend kicks Sweetness to the ground,
and out of nowhere, Sweetness' sister, Ola (Antonique Smith), roars into frame and beats the guy senseless, straddling him on the pavement and
landing blow after bloody blow. When she gets up and leaves with her sister, we notice for the first time that Ola is pregnant. It's more than a little
unsettling when she walks away from the fight, covered in blood, and runs a reassuring hand over her baby bump.
Sweetness and Ola's home life is no less messy. Their father, Gordon O'Hara (Jason Clarke), is an Irish-American drunk who disappears for days on end.
When he returns, he grows inevitably abusive, manifesting his own self-loathing as crabby, king-of-the-household domineering, slapping his daughters,
breaking bottles, and yelling at his wife, Lorene (Yolonda Ross), who cows to him, meek and terrified. Lorene also seems to have some kind of mental
trouble, perhaps severe depression—and who wouldn't be depressed in this situation?—which leaves her speechless and near-catatonic for long
stretches of time. This is not a happy family, and they basically live hand-to-mouth; there's even a scene where we see Sweetness and Ola pushing a
cart through a grocery store, pretending to shop while they pick items off the shelf and eat them right then and there.
The thrust of the story—which is somewhat disjointed, told with sudden flash-forwards and unexpected gaps in time—is Sweetness' personal
transformation, from a picked-on poor girl to a confident young woman who recognizes that to get ahead, she needs to be smart and continue her
education. It's ultimately a tale of redemption, but in between the two extremes, her life takes several dark turns, influenced by the opportunities of
the streets. She adopts a tougher, sexed-up appearance and falls in with two of her former female adversaries. She starts slinging dope for the
neighborhood Robin Hood, Roland (The Roots' Tariq Trotter), who gives back to the community by delivering groceries and paying for funerals. She
parties hard, snorting lines of coke with her high school guidance counselor (Tim Blake Nelson). This is a girl doing what she needs to do to get by, but
whose personality is hardened and embittered in the process. Sweetness goes sour, so to speak, and Zoë Kravitz is wonderful in the role, which
requires her to become unlikeable to the extent that we almost lose sympathy for her character.
Almost, but not quite. Mahoney keeps us invested in Sweetness by showing how the girl is a product of her abrasive environment. We want
her to get out. We want her to succeed. What's so sad is that her poor decisions almost make sense in the context of her life. Who are the people in
her neighborhood wielding power and influence? The drug dealers. For a girl who sees herself with no other prospects, dealing is a comparatively easy
way to gain respect and keep from being bullied.
On top of the broad-stroke social commentary, Mahoney paints in subtle shades of family drama. There's much here that goes unspoken or only
alluded to—Lorene's mental illness, Gordon's past in the Navy, Ola's break up with her baby-daddy. The film's most moving subplot is Sweetness'
evolving relationship with her father, who goes through his own transformation, realizing the error of his ways and—seeing that his daughter is
heading down a similar path—attempting to be there for her. Is it too little too late? Maybe. Is it heart-wrenching to see him extend himself in
forgiveness and reconciliation, only to have her push him aside? Absolutely. Life is complicated.
As a debut film, laden with autobiographical detail, Yelling to the Sky can feel a bit messy at times, in need of some editorial pruning. There are
a few story beats that are too vague or else simply don't work as well as they might, and some of the stylistic decisions seem somewhat
affected. That said, Mahoney is only just discovering her directorial voice, and it's great to see the emergence of another female indie filmmaker,
particularly one who's able to tell such an uncompromising, somberly realistic story.
While most low-budget indie features are going the digital route, Yelling to the Sky was shot on a fairly chunky 35mm film stock, which perfectly
suits the gritty nature of the story. MPI's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray transfer is true to the source material, keeping the image free from digital noise
reduction, edge enhancement, or other types of filtering. The graininess of the picture cuts into overall clarity somewhat—and there are some shots
where focus just isn't dialed in as accurately as it could've been—but there's a generally strong sense of high definition detail, particularly in closeups.
(See Sweetness applying makeup in the mirror.) Grain also has an effect on the color, leaving shadowy areas sometimes looking a little splotchy/noisy,
but otherwise, the picture's grading is dense and well-balanced, with good contrast, consistent skin tones, and no blown-out highlights or oversaturation.
Finally, I didn't spot any obvious compression or encode issues; Yelling to the Sky most likely looks exactly as intended here.
Yelling to the Sky features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's quiet and unobtrusively effective. Dialogue is the most
important element here, and it always has a clear, unmuffled presence at the front of the mix. Behind this is typically a wash of low-level ambience
spread throughout all of the main speakers, broadcasting street noise and party clamor, tweeting birds and rumbling thunder. David Wittman
(Fighting) provides a score that's heavy on beats, bass, record scratching, and frantic violin, and there are a few hip-hop songs mixed in as well.
All of the music sounds great—full, clean, and enveloping. The disc includes optional English subtitles.
Interview with Director Victoria Mahoney (HD, 13:28): The director discusses the extremely long 12-year process of making the film
—from penning the script, to casting, to the real-life shoot-out that took place while filming in a particularly rough neighborhood.
Yelling Graffiti (HD, 5:45): In a continuation of the same interview, Mahoney talks about using graffiti to promote the film in New York and
Berlin.
Yelling to the Sky lacks polish, but it's an otherwise compelling first film from writer/director Victoria Mahoney, who based the coming-of-age
story on certain elements of her own mixed-heritage, urban-poor upbringing. This is serious, somber drama of the kitchen sink variety, and it's not what
we might call easy entertainment. Still, it's an ultimately hopeful film, it's made with obvious passion, and Zoë Kravitz is brilliant in the role of the
troubled young Sweetness. MPI's Blu-ray release is all-around solid, but given the you'll-probably-only-want-to-watch-this-one-once nature of the film, a
Netflix or equivalent rental is probably the best way to see it.
MPI Home Video will release on Blu-ray Victoria Mahoney's drama Yelling to the Sky (2011), starring Jason Clarke, Zoë Kravitz and Sonequa Martin-Green. The release will be available for purchase online and in stores across the nation on February 5th.
