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

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

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

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

| Oct 25, 2019

The people in Youmans' film complicate a simple plot summary by presenting more than one face to the world, and to the camera.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 24, 2019

"Burning Cane" is short and difficult. It does not aspire to entertain. Its realism is shot through with a constant dull ache.

| Oct 24, 2019

Outside Tillman's homily, made magnificent and effectively hypocritical through Pierce's gripping performance, the discourse falls flat and strangely trivial at times given the context.

| Oct 24, 2019

God is destined to forever be a complicated subject for most mortals, yet there's no question this film has made me a believer in the boundless artistic potential of its creator.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2019

Without question, Youmans is courageous, hard-working, and committed to his vision. How much talent he has will be clearer when he stops trying to write like William Faulkner and use the camera like Claire Denis.

| Aug 27, 2019

"Burning Cane"... isn't a major work, yet it's a movie of minor fascinations and seductions; it exerts the pull of a natural-born filmmaker's eye.

| May 11, 2019

Would be a noteworthy debut even from a director twice Youmans' age.

| May 8, 2019

The strengths of "Burning Cane" are often also its weaknesses, but it would be an impressive debut at any age.

| Original Score: B | May 6, 2019

[Phillip] Youmans' premise and maturity go well beyond his years. He puts his characters in an angst that hovers over the entire production.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2019

A compelling 78-minute snapshot of Southern poverty and grief, 19-year-old director Phillip Youmans' debut "Burning Cane" hovers in textures more than plot.

| Original Score: B | Apr 29, 2019

Youmans' potential has no limits.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 27, 2019