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Dont we all want to watch a performance that transcends from acting tobeing?
Acting, at its most divine, is simply being.
Mountainsbegins with a Haitian proverb set against a black background that translates to Behind mountains are mountains.
Xavier is watching gentrification pick apart his second home like a vulture gorging on a carcass.
Little Haiti isnt dead, but its changing.
The film, meanwhile, unfurls at the languid, gentle pace established in its opening moments.
Yellow hard hats dotting the eyeline.
Xavier eating mango with his hands on a brief work break.
Houses up for sale.
A neighborhood in the midst of erosion.
But every film should treat its setting as a character.
This is the Miami of Haitian Creole spoken with loving reverence.
But the film is most intrigued by how this family functions and what remains unspoken between them.
When Esperance and Xavier attend an open-house tour, theres a sense that theyre trying on a new future.
Xavier encourages them both to dream about what life could be like in a home like this.
… Dont let the Black stench get to you.
Sorelle doesnt mine this moment for melodrama or neat racial lessons.
There are no dramatic disagreements, no fatalistic ruptures, no grand pronouncements in this film.
Mountainsdemonstrates two exceedingly great strengths in Sorelles work.
The first is undoubtedly how she directs actors.
Anozier gives Esperance a knowing posture.
And what is more holy on this Earth than the calloused hands of a loving mother?
This is a man who has lived.
Sorelles second strength is her keen eye.
Walls are painted a carmine red and pale peach.
Black art marks them.
Esperance at her crossing-guard job.
A triangular archway frames her and a friend conversing near the center.
Laughter overlaying the score.
Black futures are explicitly possible and imaginable because of the Haitian people.
The sequence that reveals more about Junior occurs at a stand-up comedy event.
Its Junior onstage, aware that his parents regard him as a failure.
He has a lanky, easygoing charm up there.
Why you listen to your dreams?
Youre sleeping, he says, mocking his mothers voice and demeanor.
Theres no specificity in Juniors set.
Mountainsarrived in theaters last month and is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video now.
