Nicole Riegel’s rendering of this region comes from a visceral heartfelt connection to this place, her home...

| Original Score: A | Jul 15, 2024

A thoughtful look at steadfast determination — and the emotional weight of striving beyond what your family can offer.

| Feb 13, 2024

it offers a clear-eyed undiluted vision of living under the poverty line. It’s gritty, authentic, and without a ounce of pretense.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

You can feel the harsh winter on your skin, feel the economic impacts of factories and businesses shutting down, and the exhaustion on people's faces has a way of taking over you.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 21, 2022

A promising first feature from Nicole Riegel that's at times hard to watch, but theres also the beauty of human resilience and the warmth of sibling relationship. Jessica Barden with her sorrowful eyes delivers a poignant performance.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 8, 2022

The American Dream feels almost as far out of reach as the moon in Nicole Riegel's compelling feature debut, Holler.

| Jan 10, 2022

Jessica Barden gives a performance of great sensitivity and subtlety in Holler, an evocative depiction of the Sisyphus-like experience of poverty in a depressed economy.

| Jan 10, 2022

The film, which Riegel has said is semi-autobiographical, explores a lot of issues, including how opioid addiction and loss of work has decimated old factory towns in the Rust Belt, but it also evokes a hopefulness that keeps it from being exploitative.

| Jan 10, 2022

Seeing how this tenacious girl uses her smarts to transcend her circumstances is gripping - and inspirational.

| Jan 10, 2022

This is a realistic, unblinking view from life at the bottom of the socioeconomic strata, but Holler is mercifully free of the poverty porn found in some films of this type.

| Oct 27, 2021

No mere retread of usual poverty tales, 'Holler' finds a rich connection between the characters and their needs and longings. One of the best films of 2021.

| Sep 17, 2021

Holler is...honest, for lack of a better word: its understated performances and rich storytelling give it a tremendous authenticity and emotional resonance.

| Aug 21, 2021

Just because this common American song remains relevant doesn't mean it doesn't need some new lyrics.

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 16, 2021

Holler belongs to a tradition of splintery, scrappy films about small town life rarely depicted on screen.

| Jul 16, 2021

Holler doesn't break new ground for coming-of-age movies about a teenager who's unsure of what to do after high school. However, the performances in the movie are well-acted and notable in their depiction of working-class life in southern Ohio.

| Jul 9, 2021

It's neither dull nor glorious, and won't necessarily make you have a blast of emotion, but finds something positive to say.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2021

A familiar sad tale about the woes of uneducated workers.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 24, 2021

Barden's note-perfect performance makes this story of a woman torn between the familiar and the unknown feel so authentic and heartfelt, it's impossible not to root for her.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 22, 2021

Holler is a gorgeously-textured exploration of the way ruthless corporatism trickles down through each layer of a country, and a system, until it falls on the shoulders of a young girl and obscures her future. Jessica Barden pens sonnets with her silence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 20, 2021

Holler is a poignant coming of age drama

| Jun 18, 2021