Decker\u2019s previous films, including Butter on the Latch<\/em> and Thou Wast Mild and Lovely<\/em>, are invested in making the audience uncomfortable; even Madeline\u2019s Madeline\u2019s <\/em>upends the expectations we have about what we\u2019ll feel watching a coming-of-age drama centering on a teen girl. By contrast, The Sky is Everywhere<\/em> is far more traditional \u2014 but only for Decker. This isn\u2019t daring, experimental work, but it is playful and full of whimsy. Animated storm clouds and stars are layered throughout the film, like doodles on teenagers\u2019 shoes. The handheld camera swoops and swoons, offering a heady view of a magical world filled with a gabled house and possibly enchanting roses. The nonlinear approach interrupts current experiences with flashbacks and memories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Within its opening moments, The Sky is Everywhere <\/em>establishes the absence within its broken heart. Teenage Lennie (Grace Kaufman) struggles to move on after the sudden death of her older sister \u2014 and best friend \u2014 Bailey (Havana Rose Liu). Bailey\u2019s presence is still felt throughout the charming house in the redwood forest that Lennie shares with her grandmother (a luminous Cherry Jones) and uncle (Jason Segel, all warmth) after the death of their mother. Bailey\u2019s boyfriend, Toby (Pico Alexander), lingers in the garden, and Lennie finds herself attracted to him as the one person she thinks can empathize with the extent of her grief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lennie tries to find normalcy at school, but her main identity \u2014 as the band\u2019s first-chair clarinet player with hopes of attending Juilliard \u2014 founders when she can\u2019t seem to play at all. Meanwhile, the new boy in school, Joe (Jacques Colimon) plays guitar and offers more than just a crush through the promise of healing via their shared love of music. Lennie ping-pongs between the two guys, holding on to her sister\u2019s memory through moments with Toby and grasping at moving on and becoming her own person with Joe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though The Sky is Everywhere<\/em> has far softer edges than the spikes of Shirley<\/em> and Madeline\u2019s Madeline<\/em>, they still feel like they\u2019re coming from the same brain. Not everything is spelled out, and some details feel like they\u2019re missing. It\u2019s more impressionistic than the genre often allows, and it\u2019s not always clear whether that\u2019s an artistic choice by Decker and screenwriter Jandy Nelson (who adapted her own novel for the screen) or an unintentional failure of the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadness permeates the drama, but there\u2019s still a sense of fun and even euphoria through the experience of first love. The film does heap tragedy on tragedy at times \u2014 an excess that might alienate those who weren\u2019t already put off by its ample dose of twee \u2014 but it\u2019s never dour. The Sky is Everywhere<\/em> both comprehends and expresses the sheer immensity of everything you feel as a teen, both the good and the bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sky is Everywhere<\/em> is most likely to enchant its Gen-Z target audience with its wildly romantic story set to a tinkling score, but its tenderness and authenticity can have a broader appeal. For a movie that begins with and dwells on death, it\u2019s surprisingly full of life, compelling you to feel every big emotion along with Lennie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Sky is Everywhere” debuts in select theaters and on AppleTV+ tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It sounds like a garden-variety YA adaptation, but the voice of innovative director Josephine Decker cannot be stifled. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":17869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[1098],"class_list":["post-17867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22050,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17867\/revisions\/22050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/sky-is-everywhere2-1024x487.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nB+<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n