All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, 2023.
Written and Directed by Raven Jackson.
Starring Charleen McClure, Sheila Atim, Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Kaylee Nicole Johnson, Chris Chalk, Zainab Jah, Preston MacDowell, Jannie Hampton, and Jayah Henry.
SYNOPSIS:
A decades-spanning exploration of a woman’s life in Mississippi and an ode to the generations of people, places, and ineffable moments that shape us.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt wouldn’t exist.
It doesn’t come as a shock to learn that writer/director Raven Jackson (making her narrative feature-length debut) of All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is also a photographer. Not only is the lush Mississippi scenery captured across the 70s/80s, shot with delicate care by Jomo Fray, but a conscious choice is made to zoom in on and linger on hands, whether they be intertwined with a loved one or actively in use, such as reeling in a fishing rod while carefully listening to instructions. Hands are our most valuable assets, serving as the source of all connections, emotionally and earthly.
Eschewing any semblance of a traditional narrative, this fragmented, jumping-back-and-forth-between-time look at the life of a Black woman is more concerned with the emotions deeply felt from core memories rather than the circumstances surrounding them, meaning that a tender embrace here might go on for several minutes. Whether this is too much restraint or too muted of a story and characters will vary from person to person, as the film is unquestionably an exercise in poetic mood (Raven Jackson is also a poet.) You either palpably feel this experience, or you don’t, with nothing taken away from a committed ensemble attuned to Raven Jackson’s gentle, delicate cinematic touch.
That’s one way of saying that while a teenage Mackenzie (Kaylee Nicole Johnson) was saying goodbye to a lover, there’s no denying the evocative performances on display, but also not enough there to move and elicit similar tears from a viewer significantly. The same applies to contrasting an adult, pregnant Mack (Charleen McClure) and her childhood. This also doesn’t take away from the sharp clarity of the beautiful life juxtapositions on display, ping-ponging between different ages of Mack, with one memory typically complementing another in some form.
Given the ambiguous title that makes more sense as the film continues, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is just as much about humanity’s bond to the soil of the earth as it is about Mack’s pivotal, life-shaping moments. It’s a cliché, but rural Mississippi’s serene, gorgeous environmental beauty, including the dirt, is a character itself and allotted equal lingering time. These interactions are also quietly captured through slow, meaningful hand movements expressing the importance of becoming one with this land as her grandma had instilled upon her and her sister Josie. On a related note, the fleeting moments of minimal dialogue, typically between Mack and Josie, are engaging and effective.
Gradually, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt builds to a grander message about water relating to the transformations of life, brilliantly conveyed with lyrical profundity. The purpose of why Mack’s story is to be told as an assortment of memories without chronological order crystallizes. This artistic exercise has a moving point, but it is also challenging to become fully enveloped by its glacial pacing and striking images.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
