The Black Church, Toxic masculinity and alcoholism these are the themes that are examined in first time directors Philip Youmans drama Burning Cane.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 14, 2021

It's quite a slow burn of a movie which will test some people's patience but it still deserves a watch regardless.

| Sep 30, 2020

Stepping into the emotionally intense world of Burning Cane is like being stuck in blistering heat in rural Laurel Valley, Louisiana, where the movie takes place.

| Jul 11, 2020

Burning Cane delivers a thoughtful, unyielding statement here about generational trauma, the false promise of religion, and the dire circumstances facing the rural poor.

| Mar 25, 2020

If every great story ends by starting a new story, then Phillip Youmans has succeeded on two levels with Burning Cane: we want to know what Helen has done. Even more, we want to know what Mr. Youmans will do next.

| Mar 12, 2020

Perhaps it's his youth, but the way Youmans refuses to adhere to filmmaking convention displays a confidence that is often breathtaking.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 21, 2019

Led by note-perfect performances, Burning Cane presents two distinct halves with totally different weights.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2019

Youmans, who was 17 while making the film, presents not only an advanced visual language and style for his age but a striking emotional nuance in the portrayal of his characters...

| Dec 3, 2019

An hour and 17 minutes of glorious, troubling, beautiful movie watching. The scenes are stitched together like patches on a quilt, the seams made up of as beautiful thread as the thing itself.

| Dec 3, 2019

'Burning Cane' is a portrait of the overburdened church lady whose blind faith in her Bible and her men has failed her completely, as it is destined to do.

| Original Score: 4.5 of 5 | Nov 27, 2019

...tries to reconcile what is heard and experienced in church with what is seen and felt when Sunday service is over.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 15, 2019

One might be right to believe that Burning Cane works best as vignettes of a could-be typical Black family living in a small town of rural South. It could also be seen as an ode to a people...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 11, 2019

Deeply moving and a little bit tragic.

| Nov 8, 2019

This film feels like a grown man coming back and trying to understand his childhood. This [director] was 17!... It's deeply astonishing.

| Nov 8, 2019

Even when the images edge toward the self-consciously authorial... there's always something to latch onto... "Burning Cane" also gets us excited about what else Youmans can do.

| Nov 8, 2019

Youmans... depicts these harrowing emotional crises in dramatic fragments and shadow-drenched, often oblique images; they suggest his anguish at a legacy of male frustration, violence, rage, and self-destruction...

| Nov 4, 2019

Burning Cane might not be the most rewarding film from a narrative standpoint, but it's an exciting debut in terms of craftsmanship that should take Phillip Youmans on a career worth following

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 28, 2019

At nineteen years old, Phillip Youmans has made an authentic drama that a lot of indie directors would still be striving for on their second or third feature.

| Oct 28, 2019

Pierce helps lead the way, as does the sheer excitement of watching a young filmmaker find their footing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2019

It's the blurriness of "Burning Cane-"alongside its confident sharpness-that makes it so distinctive.

| Oct 25, 2019