There are two key things about your teenage years (from my own experience, at least): none of it really makes sense, and none of it really matters. These are also two key things to bear in mind when you buckle in for new surreal satire The Sweet East. The film is a road movie of sorts, categorized as a picaresque by its official synopsis, but, to me, it functions most effectively as a coming-of-age movie. Despite its absurdity, it's a pretty realistic depiction of teenage girlhood.
When South Carolina high schooler Lillian (Talia Ryder) is separated from her classmates on a field trip to Washington DC, she finds herself on an outlandish tour of the Eastern seaboard. Self-proclaimed Antifa "artivist" Caleb (Earl Cave) takes her from DC to Baltimore before she crosses paths with a neo-Nazi academic Lawrence (Simon Rex) in rural Philadelphia.
