Eddie Huntly (Alexander Hero) is a radio host who has relocated to San Francisco to marry a woman named Thea (Nima Sloan). Right before Eddie arrives, however, Thea's brother Neil is found dead in Golden Gate Park, the apparent victim of a mugging. Eddie has his doubts about the murder, fueled by some physical evidence, and he sets out on his own personal investigation of the matter. He isn't a detective by any means, and the deeper he goes into the situation the more untethered he becomes in his own reality. Eddie just might be losing his mind completely.
The main theme of the film seems to be that the idea of objective truth might be a pipedream, and that chasing this idea might be a folly. Eddie starts working at a new radio station on a show called Fallen Territory where he interviews people that exist on the fringes of society. These people, considered kooks, see the world in completely different ways than Eddie, and he becomes increasingly more angry and frustrated with them as his own perceptions begin to crumble.
Sleepwalking is brought up several times throughout the film, and that perhaps by living our lives in the society constructed mostly by the pursuit of capitalism that we ourselves are "sleepwalking" through life, not really perceiving what is really going on around us. Eddie starts a volatile relationship with a homeless drifter, who he thinks might be Neil's killer, but he is also drawn to him because he seems to hold some sort of supernatural power over the night, as he confesses to Eddie that he sleepwalks often. It is revealed that Eddie might have more in common with him than he realizes.
Alexander Hero (who also wrote the screenplay), holds the film together deftly with his determined performance. He is an angry and confused character, his sanity tenuously held together with the barest of gossamer strings, and his portrayal is humanistic and relatable. The indie roots of the film show a little at the edges, some of the other performances aren't quite as strong, and the sound mixing is a tad hard to hear in a few scenes. These tiny things hardly make a dent in the overall experience though as the film expands outward towards the transcendental third act.
Overwhelm the Sky is filmed in gorgeous black-and-white, with excellent choreography and beautiful scenery. The focus shifts seamlessly between the organic greenery of the forest that Eddie is obsessed with exploring and brightly lit urban spaces that are punctuated with inky black shadows. Composer Costas Dafnis provides an absolutely lush orchestral score with moody strings establishing a haunting backdrop and touches of eerie atonal sound design filling in the spaces in between.
Daniel Kremer's Overwhelm the Sky (2019) is an existential neo-noir that starts out on solid ground, with a mystery, and eventually dissolves into a dream state, drifting through liminal spaces as it slowly casts aside the main narrative to embrace ambiguity.
—Michelle Kisner