Premise: A documentary about the lives of three teenage girls in Texas over summer break.
So, this movie is depressing. It was sort of like watching the documentary version of the movie Kids. On the surface, it sounds like it could be a really nice documentary. It's about how these three girls in a small Texas town spend the summer between their sophomore and junior years (I think) of high school. They drink, party, and hand out. They enjoy a lot of freedom. The same basic formula has been used for countless Sundance coming of age movies.
The difference with Cusp really is the sex. And, at first, even that doesn't seem too bad. They are fairly liberated teens who don't overromanticize sex and relationships. What's unsettling though is how matter of factly they talk about things like being molested as kids and essentially being raped by the guys they are dating. Most of them are dating men who are decently older than them. And, as the doc interviews some of their parents, you realize this is a cycle that's repeating itself. The most common note I made while watching this movie was "that's grim", followed closely by "that's not consent".
I'll admit, I'm passing more judgment than the movie does. The documentary makes its comments in less direct ways. Often, it refuses to show the men in these young women's lives or leaves them as background characters. The filmmakers don't prod the young women to examine some of the things that have happened to them any closer than they want. It's a strength of the movie how some of the most shocking things to me are said casually by them. It does a great job painting the young women as complex and rounded individuals. I was impressed with the filmmakers' (Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill) treatment of the material even if the 92 minutes in that world is all the time I want to spend there.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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