''Holler'' is a 2020 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Nicole Riegel Nicole Riegel is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Early life and education Riegel grew up in Jackson, Ohio, a town in the Appalachian foothills. . She joined the Army National Guard and was stationed at Fort Jackson, SC. A ...

in her

feature directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. It stars

Jessica Barden Jessica Amy Barden (born 21 July 1992) is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her role as Alyssa in the Channel 4 comedy-drama ''The End of the F***ing World'' (2017–2019). She received a British ...

Becky Ann Baker Becky Ann Baker (née Gelke; born February 17, 1953) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles of Jean Weir on NBC comedy-drama series ''Freaks and Geeks'' (1999–2000) and Loreen Horvath on HBO comedy-drama series ''Girls'' (2012� ...

Pamela Adlon Pamela Fionna Adlon (; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in ''Jungl ...

, Gus Halper and

Austin Amelio Austin Amelio (born April 27, 1988) is an American actor best known for his role as Dwight on '' The Walking Dead'', '' Fear the Walking Dead'' and his role as Nesbit on '' Everybody Wants Some!!'' Biography Born on April 27, 1988, in Austin, ...

Paul Feig Paul Samuel Feig (; born September 17, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for directing films starring frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy, including ''Bridesmaids'' (2011), '' The Heat'' (2013), ''Spy'' (2015) ...

serves as an executive producer under his Feigco Entertainment banner. ''Holler'' had its world premiere at the

Deauville American Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival (french: Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, link=no) is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Cho ...

on September 8, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 11, 2021.

Plot

A young woman joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way to college. With her goal in sight, she realizes the ultimate cost for education is more than she bargained for, and finds herself torn between a promising future and a family she would be leaving behind.

Cast

as Ruth * Gus Halper as Blaze *

as Hark, a junkyard owner who sells metal scraps overseas *

as Linda, a friend of Ruth and Blaze who works at a factory *

as Rhonda, drug addicted mother of Blaze and Ruth * Myesha Butler as Desiree, Blaze's girlfriend

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on September 8, 2020. It also screened at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival as part of TIFF Industry Selects on September 9, 2020. Initially the film was set to world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

in March 2020, however, the festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In February 2021,

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on June 11, 2021.

Critical reception

The website's critical consensus reads, "It's hard not to hear echoes of similarly desperate stories, but ''Holler'' drowns them out with strong performances and palpable empathy."

References

External links

* * * {{Metacritic film 2020 films 2020 directorial debut films 2020 independent films American drama films American independent films IFC Films films 2020 drama films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films