"CUSP" // SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2021
The best kind of documentary can make you feel like you are an additional person in the room, that there aren't any cameras at all. That you're simply witnessing life. CUSP, the new documentary from Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt, achieves just that. The film follows three teenage girls from a small Texas town: Brittney, Aaloni and Autumn, along with their friends and families. Still in the throngs of their teenage years, we quickly see that their lives have forced them to grow up very fast, pushing them to the "cusp" of adulthood earlier than any child should.
We go with them through a wispy, ethereal summer where three young girls, each very different, are trying to navigate this unsettling world. Troublesome revelations spin out, such as Brittney matter-of-factly saying that a couple of her friends aren't together anymore because, "he basically raped her." The casualness masks the true intention: she's trying to be heard in a town that doesn't want girls to be fully heard. One of her male friends even responds with a classic. "Yeah, but they were both drunk so that can't even be rape." Again, fully in a casual, drinking beer with your buddies kind of way. It's infuriating and stings and burns. The boys may laugh it off as another discussion over beers but none of the girls are laughing. They're all screaming to be heard.
Autumn tells how she wishes she could "take back her virginity" because she didn't really want to give it away and kept telling him no, but he continued anyway. She asks her friends, "What do I have to do? Cry? Scream?" It's shocking in the sense that it's not shocking at all, only horribly sad. Wisely, it's on of the girls, Aaloni, who speaks up saying, "That isn't your virginity." Much of the film bluntly and bravely focuses on how much rape culture, sexism and misogyny run thhis tiny town that the girls are so desperate to get out of.
We also follow the trio simply existing as kids: getting ready for a party, comforting each other after a breakup or shooting guns off in the middle of a field (I mean, it IS Texas now). The cinematography is stunning, giving the entire film a dreamlike state: warm and bold. A great soundtrack echos and frames their lives over the summer, making moments feel like a striking narrative film. The toxic culture doesn't just apply to the young boys either. While getting the house ready for Aaloni's 13-year-old sisters birthday, her younger sibling comments on how pretty she feels in her shirt. Her father bashes it, yelling at her to change. "You're not my daughter, not while you're wearing that." It's cold and cruel and unacceptable.
Not able to see her sister so upset on her own birthday, Aaloni marches to her father and off camera we hear the confrontation. First she tries to reason with him, asking her Dad to just let her be a kid and wear what she wants. Instead he yells at her, in a conversational tone at first and then quicly into something much more fearful and dangerous. A bark that tells you exactly what kind of man he is, one that proudly tells his daughter that he doesn't care that they hate him. She runs off in tears. The fact that their father is so twisted that he would sexualize his own daughters shirt is deeply troubling.
A large Union Jack flag hangs inside one of the boys rooms as well, shouting out a racist history that is just brimming on the surface of this town. But it's not the boys story, it's Autumn's and Aaloni's and Brittany's. Directors Hill and Bethencourt hold no punches and are not afraid to tackle the reality of what it's like to be a young girl in a southern town today. It's a bold and brilliant film, one that is sometimes joyous to watch and other times a searingly painful viewing. As much pain is brewing throughout the film, we are able to watch the girls become more confident, being to love themselves more and start to march towards happiness instead of fear.
One of the subjects screams out towards the end of the film: "I'm only sixteen! I've got forever to go!" In one summer, these girls go through years of growing, holding onto each other tight, knowing that they are still young and the future is scary. But it's a lot less scary when you have each other's backs.
GRADE: A
DIRECTED BY Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt FEATURED AS PART OF THE 2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: CUSP