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Cusp

Play trailer 2:10 Poster for Cusp 2021 1h 23m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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86% Tomatometer 35 Reviews 33% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Cusp chronicles one formative year of teenage life for three friends in a Texas town where there's little to do but party--and where liquor, drugs, and guns are standard recreational accessories.
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Cusp

Cusp

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Critics Consensus

Cusp smartly and sensitively captures the experiences of a trio of teen girls as they navigate the uncertain ground between youth and adulthood.

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Critics Reviews

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Christy Lemire FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles) It's actually a horror movie if you're a parent. This is terrifying. Dec 1, 2021 Full Review Ann Hornaday Washington Post In this mesmerizing, revelatory and deeply compassionate film, viewers are left with an indelible impression of girlhood at its most precarious and indomitable. Rated: 4/4 Nov 24, 2021 Full Review Sheila O'Malley RogerEbert.com 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. Rated: 3/4 Nov 12, 2021 Full Review Phil Guie Film-Forward.com As heavy as Cusp mostly is, the main subjects emerge on the other side of their bad experiences, and its actually remarkable seeing them changenot just physically but emotionally as wellbefore our eyes. Rated: 3.5/5 Apr 17, 2022 Full Review Carson Timar Clapper Had the focus been more interesting, this is clearly a team that could have made something really special. As is, Cusp remains a rather forgettable and surprisingly hollow feature for what felt so promising. Feb 22, 2022 Full Review Jordan Elizabeth Common Sense Media While Cusp isn't easy viewing, it documents the harsh reality that rigid gender expectations cause real harm to young people. Rated: 3/5 Nov 23, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Danny L 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)" Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/14/24 Full Review David F 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. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/01/23 Full Review Jules G 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. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/05/23 Full Review Ian M A masterpiece. Subtle, sophisticated, well observed. Incredibly uncomfortable, but important to watch. Deeply empathetic. A must see. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/05/23 Full Review kelly l 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. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review john m 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. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Cusp

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Cusp chronicles one formative year of teenage life for three friends in a Texas town where there's little to do but party--and where liquor, drugs, and guns are standard recreational accessories.
Director
Isabel Bethencourt, Parker Hill
Producer
Zachary Luke Kislevitz, Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt
Production Co
Irving Harvey, The 51 Fund, Kislevitz Films, Wavelength International, Maiden Voyage Films, Cardel Entertainment
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 26, 2021
Runtime
1h 23m
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