Berlinale Dispatch: A Mixed Bag From Africa, and Zoe Kravitz Keeps it Real

In Yelling to the Sky, the debut feature of writer-director Victoria Mahoney, Zoë Kravitz plays a mixed-race Brooklyn teenager (dad is an abusive Irish hothead, mom is a fragile, emotionally compromised creature who can barely get off the couch) who starts out as a good girl but swerves off-course into a world of drug dealing and generally acting tough. A wag writing for one of the trades here has already dubbed Yelling to the Sky "Precious lite," and unfortunately, that really does seem to be the vibe Mahoney is going for. (Gabourey Sidibe has a small role as the school bully.)

Mahoney seems to be feeling around for her own visual style: There are a few blurry-edged sequences that hint at the loneliness and hostility of a kid spinning out of control. But she doesn't know how to harness them in the service of storytelling. And we often have no idea why the characters behave as they do; they experience massive revelations without any intimation of how or why.

But even though the movie around her falters, Kravitz (daughter of Lenny; Lisa Bonet is her mom), who has appeared in a handful of movies as well as on Californication, shouldn't be casually dismissed. Even when her character's behavior is baffling, Kravitz holds the camera: She gets beyond textbook sullen poutiness and hints at the genuine pain that might be inside. With the right material and the right director, she could be something to watch. She at least makes Yelling at the Sky tolerable, a small but not completely negligible blessing.

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