Really Surprised!

Great Film overall

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I love the contrast between the city and the countryside. It shows that sometimes the country can be more dangerous and much worse than the city regarding social issues. However, this wasn't enough to make a good movie, because the plot goes nowhere. Nothing is said, the parents are cowards, the kid is struggling but then his selfish mother when she gets affected decides to finally move back and apologize to him. That's all about it. Very simple rather mediocre story.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. That is supposed to be the message of this unique Sundance Film Festival winner, however any message the film intended to share was lost by it's sheer disturbing nature. Ryder (Logan Miller) is a Gay California teenager who is going with his parents to a family reunion in Kansas. Knowing that her rural family will never understand, Ryder's mother has kept that little detail from the rest of the family, much to Ryder's chagrin. Ryder rebels in his own way by wearing an outrageous outfit and keeping to himself at the family outing, only spending time with his young cousin, Molly (Ursula Parker) who wants to play in the barn. When Molly comes running back from the barn with an unusual bloodstain, Ryder earns the ire of the rest of his family and wants to tell them he's gay, but apparently being thought of as something else is even better than that. If this film displays one thing, it's that homophobia is alive and well, and that should have been more the focus of this film. While I think everyone pretty much suspected Ryder was gay, the whole situation with Molly made them think he was something else too and the focus was on that. The families reaction to it was what was even more disturbing as it ranged from what you'd expect to sheer ridiculousness. I honestly can't believe some of the things that happened in this film, as they were both disturbing and seemingly without much of a purpose. Logan Miller stars and now that I've seen him in a few other things, I can honestly say that he's the kind of actor who has to fit the role. He has this kind of whiny, emo boy personality that just doesn't fit with everything. In a film like this, if anything I'd expect him to be more outraged, emotional to the point of being over the top but he really wasn't, it was as if he didn't grasp what he was being accused of. Take Me To The River focused on a single event and just didn't let go, everything else became irrelevant. The film was disturbing, the acting was sub-par, and a lot of what happened just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.

A young man visiting relatives in rural Nebraska goes into a barn to play a game with a 9 year old cousin. She emerges screaming from the barn with a blood-stained dress and, to put it mildly, things go downhill from there.The strongest element of this film is also the element that makes it the most frustrating as a viewer--namely this is a movie that commits completely to holding the point of view of the main character, Ryder. There are undercurrents of emotion and resentment roiling beneath the setting of a folksy family reunion, in particular some very strained and strange dynamics between Ryder's mother and her brother (the father of the 9 year old girl). Ryder is totally lost at sea because not only is he on unfamiliar ground (a gay, California city boy out in the country), but his parents and especially his mother behave in a seemingly irrational manner as events continue to escalate.By the middle of the movie I was thinking "Will someone just PLEASE explain what is going on here?!?!?!". On the one hand, I appreciate that this is exactly how Ryder himself must feel. But on the other hand, I got anxious and frustrated waiting for the film to reveal the background context needed to understand what was happening--to the point that it was hard to sit through scene after scene of coded conversations and meaningful looks.I thought that the acting was very strong across the board, including the children.Aside from feeling like the limited point-of-view was a double-edged sword, my only other criticism is that there were certain character actions that were just way too illogical or dumb. For example, despite the fact that he was all but accused of molesting his cousin, Ryder several times allows himself to be alone with other young girls without any other adults even in earshot. I just didn't believe it. Why if you had been accused (and also implicitly threatened) would you ever allow yourself to be in a position again where there were no witnesses to your behavior? There were a few character decisions (necessary to move the plot along) that didn't feel like real character choices--and they stand out because for the most part the acting and writing does come across as very realistic.Generally speaking this is one I'd recommend, especially if you can watch it for free on a streaming service as I did.

In other reviews I have talked about the hidden eco-system within the modern film. It is a system with its own boundaries and borders and rhythms. Most Hollywood films do not explore the possibilities of this world in depth, but Sobel more than makes up for that in this film. Every shot, every scene, every nuance of the incredibly sparse dialog shows you what is possible, how to get the most from the least.It is a good solid effort and if you are hooked by the opening premise, you will be hooked all the way through.That said, I was surprised when I read the IMDb "summary" for the film because the information there goes far beyond the clues and puzzle pieces in then actual film, and frankly that summary "assumes" the viewer has access to more information about the story (right off the top) than than most viewers will actually have.The acting is first rate. Watching what happens when the world's most naive 17 year old boy meets the world's most sophisticated 9 year old "Lolita" is like watching a play within a play. And works on many levels since, in spite of the sparse dialog, the story itself is like an onion, with layers to peel back as you try to understand it.Big fan of Weigert ever since Deadwood, where she stole entire episodes from heavyweight actors.Recommended.