Take Me To The River

A peculiar psychological thriller that's bound to irritate some viewers while burrowing into the minds of others, "Take Me to the River," the directorial debut from Matt Sobel, opens with a shot from the perspective of a vehicle driving down a deserted highway in the middle of the night.

Inside the car a teenage boy in the backseat, Ryder (an impressive Logan Miller), removes a pair of headphones from his ears and asks, "Mom... Have you told your Nebraskan family I'm gay?" Clearly uncomfortable, Ryder's mother, Cindy (the superb Robin Weigert, who played Calamity Jane on HBO's "Deadwood") curls up in the passenger seat and says, "I was kind of thinking that while we're here we don't need to make a real big deal about it." Defending his wife, the patriarchal figure at the wheel, Don (Richard Schiff) states, "You know what? It's not about you... It's about mom, and it's about grandma, and it's about having a good time with the Nebraska family... and, let's not focus on you, okay?"

This may seem like a clich�d prologue where the parents of an adolescent protagonist are introduced by prioritizing their own well-being over their child's, but as the film unravels it's clear that they have reasons to be concerned.

Ryder protests against his parents' request to keep his identity hidden by donning a V-neck and a bright red pair of short-shorts in a family photo, causing one relative to ask, "Why did you take your pants off?" However, his nine-year-old cousin, Molly (Ursula Parker, who portrays one of Louis C.K.'s daughters on "Louie") seems completely smitten with him, and asks if he could help her look for birds' nests in a nearby barn. Following an incident that occurs off-screen, the film cuts to Molly running back to the family party; her dress stained with a slight amount of blood. Ryder claims he doesn't know what happened, but his menacing uncle, Keith (Josh Hamilton of Noah Baumabch's "Kicking and Screaming") has suspicions of foul play, and an impending sense of dread begins to intensify throughout the rest of the gathering.

The big reveal that the film builds up to is, unfortunately, a bit of a letdown, but Sobel executes everything else up until that point with keen precision. For a feature film debut, "Take Me to the River" is masterfully composed, escalating the tension through awkward pauses and uncomfortable silences. Each shot lingers a little too long to provide the viewer with a sense of comfort, with the threat of potential violence bubbling beneath the surface of nearly every frame. The gorgeous Nebraskan landscapes are perfectly juxtaposed with the film's sinister undertones; rarely has a scene of two kids horseback riding through a field of dandelions felt so ominously eerie. And the performances are terrific, keeping us on edge just enough to question whether ulterior motives could be the driving forces behind each character's unnerving behavior.

Once the climactic revelation begins to play out, though, the film runs out of steam, providing answers that make sense, yet aren't necessarily satisfying. It's provocative, to be sure, but thematically, it feels muddled without carrying much dramatic weight. Revisiting the film for a second time helped me put all of the puzzle pieces together, but the film is more effective as an exercise in suspense than an as a cautionary tale about buried secrets. I also couldn't help but feel a tad queasy that nearly every Nebraskan character comes off as a conservative bigot, perhaps because the film's initial themes on socio-political statuses causing rifts in families is sidelined in favor of delving into more psychosexual material.

Despite these flaws, "Take Me to the River" gets under your skin and stays there. What it lacks in clarity, it makes up for in terms of its craftsmanship, which is nothing short of remarkable. Guaranteed to induce sweaty palms over its intense 84-minute runtime, Sobel's debut may leave you scratching your head, but have fun untying those knots in the pit your stomach.