The Sky Is Everywhere (2022)

I didn't expect to enjoy this YA exploration of grief as much as I did. While many of these films feel trite and simplistic, The Sky Is Everywhere found a groove that made it just so watchable. While I found it fumbling some of the relationships, I was still generally hooked from early on and found it compelling all the way though. 

Director Decker is often described as "experimental" and while I think that can be a bit of an overreaction, her style is certainly outside the mainstream and she brings that energy to this, her most mainstream film I've seen. She infuses a charming sense of emotional resonance through the use of slightly surrealist elements in her otherwise straight forward narrative. The film is just beautiful to watch. As is her cast. 

Young actors Grace Kaufman and Jacques Colimon are magnetic on screen and both show a lot of promise by fleshing out their characters fully. Jason Segel and Cherry Jones are delightful in supporting roles and each transcend the parts written for them. Everyone is upping their game here and that contributes to the richness of the story. 

But for me the story's reliance on old love triangle tropes gets in the way of its far more compelling exploration of grief and loss. The film acknowledges the hurt we cause when we are hurt and how winding the grief process is. It finds lovely little moments of joy within the hurt, often rising above the tropes of movies about death even while exploring them. But it also struggles on the romance elements in ways that felt too cliche. For me the connection between Lennie and Toby needed more than the surface attention it got and her complicated feelings for the two young men in her life could have been more satisfying if the film had dropped some of it's rom-com approaches and allowed Lennie to have more complex desires and connections. 

So while The Sky is Everywhere escapes some of the pitfalls of its genre it doesn't quite make it out of those weeds. Still it is very enjoyable and sweet and a satisfying watch. It also excites me to see what Decker will explore next time. 

The Sky Is Everywhere

Starring: Grace Kaufman, Jacques Colimon, Jason Segel, Cherry Jones, Ji-Young Yoo, Pico Alexander

Director: Josephine Decker

Writer: Jandy Nelson