They look like a rational response to the chaos in which she has been raised. Her inflated ego is a smokescreen: as her story unfolds, she seems like the one most at risk, the one closest to being derailed by what are usually called "bad choices." When you hear Brittney's backstory, her "bad choices" don't look "bad" at all. Yes, I'm saying I hate myself." Brittney brags that everyone wants to be friends with her. Gives you something to do." Aaloni: "I'm not scared of shit." Autumn, memorably: "Personally, I f**king hate teenagers. Voiceover narration shows up intermittently, and the girls narrate their lives in almost deadpan fashion. "Cusp" mostly lives on the inside, in the thick of it with the girls. The rest of the film avoids this type of explicit commentary. It's an excellent shot, although self-conscious in its juxtaposition: it is the view of an outsider. One of the boys starts pushing the girls on the swing, and the girls shriek and laugh. Nothing is strange about this to the kids in question. The first shot of "Cusp" is almost eerie: Two girls sit on a swing as two boys in the background shoot guns at a target, strolling into frame wielding gigantic automatic weapons. They sneak out of their houses to go to a party in the woods, a party broken up by the cops. They go to swimming holes, they stroll along dirt roads, phones sticking out of the back pockets of their short shorts. They are in each others' business, as good friends always are. Their home lives are less than ideal, and in some cases fraught with violence. The girls are often filmed sprawled out on one of their beds, long limbs intertwined, the casual and comforting pig-pile of lazy teenage girls. But "Cusp," with its dreamy imagery of golden sunsets and thunder-y twilights, empty Dairy Queen parking lots, and birds taking flight, is a mood-driven piece of work, sensitive to landscape and environment, and the girls' casual comments about rape (just one example) stand in stark contrast. Some might find the disconnect disconcerting, and they would not be wrong. "Cusp" has some serious things to say about teenage girls and the dangers surrounding them, but the directors have embedded themselves so totally in the girls' world, and the girls are so seemingly casual about all of it, that there's a disconnect at work. The summer is aimless and endless, and also intense and eventful. Brittney, Autumn, and Aaloni are 15, 16 years old, and it is summertime.
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