It isn’t exactly a mistake to call Robert Greene a great observational filmmaker in grand tradition of nonfiction film, only what he often captures is the unseen. For years, he’s taken a hybrid approach to documentary, involving his subjects to a greater and greater degree in the telling of their own story, using the process of reenacting their past or acting out dreams they may have as a form of better understanding themselves or the culture they’re a part of in films such as “Bisbee ’17,” about a town still recovering from the implications of a race riot a century later, or “Procession,” in which survivors of sexual abuse saw participating in a film as a means of taking control of history that haunted them. When others can feel behind the times simply capturing what they see as verite filmmakers, Greene’s approach seems to be unusually attuned to a moment in which people are carrying a lot of trauma that they’d rather hide and the dramatic scenes have a way of opening up a liminal space where such wounds can be identified and treated accordingly.
The director along with a crew including many longtime collaborators (all of whom are acknowledged in the film’s unusually long and generous possessory credit) have worked out the particulars of seeing their experimentation have real results, which makes the fact that “Too Much Sugar” seems to push the envelope a little further truly admirable. It is easily the strangest film that Greene has embarked on in recent years, but also still very much capable of the gut punch that his films have been known for as it centers on Ryan Holliger, a native of Moberly, Missouri who appears to have gotten his life together after serving a prison stretch at 17 and rebuilt his own house as he puts them together for others as a carpenter, though he’s still got his hands full with six kids by five different mothers (as he quips, “bad decisions turn into great kids”). A title card concedes Greene was not a fan of Ryan when they first met, presenting him at first as the kind of loudmouth at your kids’ basketball game that you’d want to keep 10 feet away from, but his passion can’t be denied nor his heart given the time to get to know him and as the director mentions in the same interstitial, he came to love him when the two had kids on the same team and Ryan approached him with the idea of making a movie about fatherhood, or probably more accurately, an act of fatherhood when the production can be used to foster a greater connection with his kids.
Once a deal is struck between the two for a collaboration, “Too Much Sugar” really does seem to get inside Ryan’s head when it parlays an agreement into an imagined scene with his leading man arriving home to chaos, with some kids outside playing basketball and others inside the house covering every inch in toilet paper. How much of the calamity can be attributed to Ryan is an open question throughout the film, but he does mean well as he spends time with all his kids from the eight-year-old Jarrion to the 23-year-old Gavin, who didn’t even know that Ryan was his biological father until he was 14, and wants to be there for his friend Accrite, who lost his teenage son at a house party where guns were fired in 2023. Not only does Ryan proceed to make his movie, but the film actively asks all involved what movie they would make if they had the opportunity, giving an insight to either the current feelings or dreams (as Gavin sadly says, he has none of the latter as he’s just doing his best to stay afloat).
“Too Much Sugar” has a lot rougher edges than Greene’s recent work as a result when it has to make the time for everyone – plenty of times attention is pulled in a variety of different directions — but then again that’s what Ryan actually has to do in his daily routine. The fact it feels overwhelming should be cause for concern as Ryan may think he can handle all the responsibility, but for as much as he may have grown, it may be too much for anyone. He also probably could stand to be more appreciative of Amanda, the mother of two of his children who stayed with him as he had others over 18 years, essentially becoming a caretaker to them all as she works a full-time job where she is relieved she can pick everyone up from school, not even imagining having time for herself. (Her movie is called “Mom Swap” and involves someone else making spaghetti for dinner for a change.) In general, the film starts to shrewdly resemble what appears to be a key issue in Ryan’s life as he doesn’t think through the consequences of his actions despite his best intentions as the narrative increasingly grows out of control.
If Ryan wanted to make a movie to express who he was to his kids once they’re grown, he may have revealed more than he even knew about himself, but knowing that he shares a directing credit with Greene (as a “co-creator”) actually becomes an endearing part of the proceedings when he’s clearly aiming for openness from everyone and Greene’s notion of film being some form of communication that transcends what can be articulated with other languages, usually by people who feel robbed of the proper words after years of being diminished, shines through again when everyone in the family can start to see each other in different ways than their routine allows for. “Too Much Sugar” succeeds at showing a father trying their best as Ryan has hoped, but delivers a real jolt when presenting how messy that can actually be.
“Too Much Sugar” will screen again at the Venice Film Festival on September 4th at Astra 2 at 4:30 pm and Astra 1 at 5:30 pm.