The Sky Is Everywhere Review: Pretty To Look At, But A Pain To Watch
Josephine Decker's The Sky Is Everywhere is inventive, whimsical and vibrant. Unfortunately, the movie buckles under the weight of its own self-indulgent exuberance. The romantic drama, based on the YA novel of the same name by Jandy Nelson,is all style and no substance. Although the mise-en-scène reflects the unique eye of the director, and there are isolated moments that are truly compelling, the overall picture falls flat. The Sky Is Everywhere may be a visual treat, but it's soured by a complete lack of balance in the story structure, characterization, motivation, and pacing.
The Sky Is Everywhere is a story of grief and love. Teenage music prodigy Lennie Walker (Grace Kaufman) is struggling to cope with the sudden, unexpected death of her sister Bailey (Havana Rose Liu). She's increasingly isolating herself from her best friend Sarah (Ji-young Yoo), her Gran Fiona (Cherry Jones) and her uncle Big (Jason Segel), and finds herself unable to play music — despite that being her biggest passion. She also has found herself torn between two romantic interests: Joe Fontaine (Jacques Colimon), a popular and talented bandmate, and Toby Shaw (Pico Alexander), Bailey's boyfriend before she died.
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The Sky Is Everywhere is caught between Decker's luscious direction and ramshackle storytelling. The plot is a mess: the movie varies from lingering on long, metaphoric dream-like sequences to skipping through story points at breakneck speed. The exposition is delivered in clunky fashion, largely told through voice-over narration rather than shown. Audiences are told Lennie is a prodigy rather than seeing how well she could play before her sister
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