Cusp

Amazing portrayal of the teenage girl experience in America. I related hard to this, even though there were some marked regional differences. A lot of the bad reviews I see for this documentary feel like we got the point of the movie, but decided "this isn't my truth (how I want reality to be, so I hate it)"

I usually love these cinema verité documentaries about teenagers (like American Teen (2008), Seventeen (1983), and Medora (2013), to name a few), and this one promised to be an x-ray into teenagers circa 2019 in small town Texas but it was just too decontextualized and too impressionistic to make much of an impression. There were a couple of scenes that were really interesting (like a romantic breakup, and a family shouting match) but I realized that I just didn't seem to know enough about these people to quite make sense of how those events fit into their lives. The movie has some revelations about modern life and it has some beautiful Western cinematography but as a documentary about teenagers it wasn't all it could be.

This was a beautiful and heartbreaking portrayal of the pain and pitfalls of being a teenage girl. Giving these girls a voice in a world that clearly doesn't want to listen to them, is exactly why films like this need to be made.

A masterpiece. Subtle, sophisticated, well observed. Incredibly uncomfortable, but important to watch. Deeply empathetic. A must see.

Such an interesting slice of life. So hard to feel comfortable through this film, but it is what is happening in our teenager's lives Closing your eyes isn't going to change anything and complaining that life is so different for our teenagers isn't solving anything. Great way to start a conversation with our own children. Great documentary.

Painfully sad and depressing pseudo-documentary. Around the 30% mark, I had to start jumping forward in one-minute jumps because there is zero narrative or story here or attempting to show any growth whatsoever. It's simply four girls living day-to-day in a run-down town, living lower-middle-class lives with next to zero parental supervision and apparently, the little there is are either sexually abusing the girls or too concerned with their own problems. We get to see the three mid-to-late teen females doing their best remain sane in what is a deeply depressing environment. Several decades ago they might have been living in run-down trailers, however, in the 2020's with cell phones, video games, easily available alcohol, weed, and who knows what the white powder is, it is amazing they are as mentally balanced as they appear in the film. Interest in school or a job is hardly mentioned, if at all. It's truly a tough watch.

We follow three dull, going-nowhere teenaged girls in a dull, going-nowhere town. One would hope that somewhere along the way, they would see a glimpse of something bigger than their circumstances. Nope. In their future we see nothing more than more beer, more pot, more rapey sex, and more disappointment. The whole thing made me want to dip myself into a vat of sanitizer. There, I feel better now!

Extremely well filmed and captured story about kids on the cusp of adulthood. Parents clearly not involved in their lives.

Absolutely horrifying. After 15 minutes I was saying: Where are their parents? And then you see their parents--and you don't wonder anymore. I hate to say this--it breaks my heart--but I honestly don't see there being hope for these girls in any way, even though they are only 15 years old. They have dullard level IQs, substandard educations, ignorance accumulated over multiple generations--reinforced and rewarded in their community--drug habits, cigarette habits, no aspirations besides "sittin' by the pool with a cole beer an' a blunt," eating ice cream out of the carton for breakfast, hanging out with "boys" a lot older than them (that 5-year age difference between 15 and 20 is enormous here), losing their virginity by these young men who declare it isn't rape if both the guy and girl are drunk (which girls believe to be true since these guys are do much older and wiser..."and, I dunno--they're just so strong and...kinda power...like you can't really say 'no' to 'em...uhhh...oh god). Child sexual abuse facilitated by a mentally ill mothers. One girl with her hair up, in a bathrobe, leaning against her front door, smoking a cigarette, looking already like a prematurely aged 40-year-old...who looks 65...with a baby face, already overlaid with cynical empty disappointed. The one borderline maybe-she'll-be-ok girl had Dustin, a "boyfriend" she adored but who clearly is gay but not acknowledged [yet by him or certainly not anyone else] which seemed a godsend since she received a safe version of affection without getting her in any kind of trouble...until he breaks up with her and disappears from her life and the film--and she goes from getting high and drunk every day for fun vs getting stoned and drunk every day out of sadness. Story after story about being molested as children, about being raped as teenagers--each time one of these young women tells her story, the others just play with their hair or look into the middle distance or stare at the wall...my friends certainly wouldn't have done that, so I don't get what that's about. Except perhaps the suggestion is that radical dysfunction is so commonplace or none of them knows anything else? This documentary almost made me throw up from despair and pathos. I don't know what the point is other than prurient voyeurism and cynical opportunism on the part of the filmmakers. In my opinion, it's cowardly, maybe even irresponsible, and certainly lame, to make a documentary like this without a point of view.

Cusp is mostly a successful portrait of adolescence. There are moments that come actress genuine and are very hard hitting. But I have to be honest, there are certain scenes that do feel a bit exploitative. It leads to the film feeling messy and aimless at points. I do think the positives slightly outweigh the negatives though. Overall, this could’ve been better. It still mostly works though. If you are looking for a short documentary this is a fine option.