Yelling to the Sky

Year: 2011
Country: USA
Run Time: 96 minutes

Seventeen-year-old Sweetness O'Hara struts down her neighborhood street with a forty in her hand and a justified chip on her shoulder. At home she faces an inescapable cycle of abuse and neglect, both verbal and physical. At school she juggles peer pressure, alienation, and the fact that at any given moment she may get jumped from behind. Initially an introspective, quiet teen blending into the crowded halls of her high school, Sweetness's attitude changes lanes when the pressure of contending with an alocholic father, an emotionally absent mother, and a lingering threat of violent bullies carry her past her boiling point and into a world of reckless ambivalence. A visceral coming-of-age story featuring a sobering, breakthrough performance from Zoë Kravitz, YELLING TO THE SKY will pick you up and take you on an unrelenting ride through the streets of New York to the alleys of Sweetness's existence. – M.M.

• Tweet