Burning Cane is a disjointed and at times powerful meditation on social alienation, masculinity, and the grappling of faith in a seemingly faithless world. Set in rural Louisiana, the film follows the downtrodden Wayne family, anchored by the hard-handed matriarch Helen (a riveting Karen Kaia Rivers). Her son, Daniel, portrayed with subtle intensity by Dominique McClellan, struggles to find work while caring for his impressionable young son, Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly), but Daniel’s struggles with work and alcoholism have lead him down a path of violence and abuse. 

In between the cinema vérité moments with members of the family, we also follow a widower and Baptist minister, Pastor Tillman, played by the always-electrifying Wendell Pierce. Tillman serves as the film’s voice of faith, literally and allegorically. His own inner demons (his penchant for drunk driving) expose his own misgivings about what he stands for, and throughout Helen serves as his guardian and conscience. 

The directorial debut of 19-year-old Phillip Youmans, Burning Cane is a murky but impeccably shot haze of something like visual poetry. Our teenage filmmaker is clearly a natural, and the film borrows from filmmakers like Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky, among others—the use of natural lighting, long meandering takes, nature imagery, and contemplative voice-overs. But where Youmans succeeds in portraying this small Louisiana community with patient and attentive eyes, he is less successful in creating a story line that is truly novel. The narrative structure plays out in true Malickian fashion as a series of fragmented moments and half-finished arcs, with the occasional poetic musings narrated by the characters. Again, Youmans proves to be a very mature writer, though some may find such rambling a tad hokey, especially if one is not familiar or a fan of filmmakers like Malick.

If you’re not drawn to experimental narrative structures with no singular or straightforward story line, Burning Cane may feel like one long incoherent drag despite barely breaking 77 minutes. But if you’re curious to witness the potential of a very audacious and mature young director and a story that I can’t help but feel comes from a real place, Burning Cane will give you a taste of what could be the start of a unique perspective. Personally, I’m looking forward to what Youmans makes next.