“The Sweet East”: A Surreal and Farcical Journey Through Contemporary America.

At La Quinzaine, the American Sean Price Williams takes a young student on a surreal and farcical trip that mocks contemporary America. A biting but somewhat futile first attempt.

A first film directed by the chief operator of the Safdie brothers and Alex Ross Perry? It was enough to sharpen the attention of festival-goers fond of mumblecore. The Sweet East presents itself as a kind ofAlice in Wonderland modern and trashy; and starts on the wheel hats. Williams immediately seduces with his recognizably grainy photography, choppy camerawork and dissonant soundtrack. We stick to the coattails of a student on a school trip to Washington who lets go of her classmates and runs off with a band of young punk activists. What is she looking for or what is she fleeing from? No matter, she is about 20 years old, the age to live her life. On her way, she will come across neo-Nazis, Islamists who are fans of electro in the countryside, a hipster New York filmmaker and his producer… Everyone takes kindly to their rank in this picaresque adventure, both joyfully dreamlike and generously buffoonish.

In its center, Price Williams embroiders a little story at the Lolita between her heroine and a benevolent academic (always excellent Simon Rex), an old boy with a passion for butterflies who also happens to be driven by fascist convictions… It’s almost a medium-length in the film and it’s an understatement to say that the romance – platonic – is disconcerting. A bit of a poet, a bit of an actress and seasoned mythomaniac, his Alice wanders from community to community, each time being careful not to pass the slightest judgment on their convictions or their way of life and we end up wondering where Price Williams wants to take us. with this fable less cute than it seems. One thing is certain: he paints in broad strokes the portrait of a fragmented and sclerotic America where each group lives in virtual autarky without ever crossing paths, sitting comfortably on its small narrow vision of the world. A well-coated candy that leaves a strange bitter aftertaste in the mouth.