The Line

A propulsively brutal cautionary tale...

For all its comparative lack of insight, there’s something intriguing about the ride, due chiefly to a pair of fascinating lead performances and a fatalistic sense of humor.

Berger takes a keen anthropological approach to the rites and rituals of the fictitious Kappa Nu Alpha house, and he makes it so that you can almost smell the stale beer and crumpled Ralph Lauren.

The film is most interesting when observing the subtler power dynamics at play within frats.

Wolff gives a focused, attention-grabbing performance, working from the outside-in, with an affected long-voweled voice and measured, studied pose and walk. As Tom’s world crumbles, his performance becomes more raw, adding sensitivity and disillusionment.

Enthralling even when it doesn't go deep.

Ethan Berger’s The Line is a fascinating and dark look at a fictional fraternity that offers fantastic performances from its ensemble cast.

The Line is pretty good for what it is, and the outstandingly committed cast helps, but for all of its positives and sense of lived in realness, Berger’s impact is fleeting.

A stirring debut feature that takes viewers into the toxic world of fraternity culture, Berger forces the audience to ponder why these fractured institutional pillars still remain standing today.

This sort of thing has been done before. But despite its melodramatic elements, The Line feels like a more credibly drawn depiction/indictment than most of a system that perpetuates so much our society’s entrenched inequities.