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Rust creek8/13/2023 ![]() ![]() Chekhov's Skill: Sawyer is introduced running on a track.The thermos of anhydrous ammonia becomes critical in the third act.The weeding fork that Sawyer steals from Lowell gets used in the final act.Catchphrase: Sheriff O'Doyle likes to put people in their place by pointing to himself and saying "Chief," and then pointing to the person he's talking to and saying, "Indian." This is how Sawyer recognizes him.It stars Hermione Corfield as a Kentucky college student who runs afoul of some Hillbilly Horrors. They change us and we change them.” It’s the first time two characters have had a substantial conversation, and even some brief cheesiness is a welcome respite from the chilling emptiness of the Blue Ridge Mountains.Rust Creek is a 2019 thriller directed by Jen McGowan. After they finish the cook, Lowell tells Sawyer: “Everyone we meet is a chemical reaction. The austere minimalism of “Rust Creek” works to the movie’s advantage. Written by Julie Lipson with story credit to producer Stu Pollard, the script does a lot with a little, even if it does veer into obvious metaphor territory. Like a young Jennifer Lawrence or Elizabeth Olsen, she has the whole girl-next-door-who-could-definitely-beat-you-up thing in the bag. Corfield, who boasts bit parts in popular franchises such as “Star Wars,” “Mission: Impossible,” and “xXx,” will have a long career. The movie is brilliantly cast - Paulson has that emaciated meth-dealer quality Christian Bale has to work for. Moments like the nails coming off, or when Lowell douses himself in milk after getting hit with lye, hint at a wry sense of humor lurking beneath her capable genre chops. Under McGowan’s restrained direction, “Rust Creek” is an impressive example of good storytelling overriding budget and star power. Dumping the used chemicals into the river, she admonishes him: “Not very green.” Having been alone for so long, this shred of company awakens in him the long-dormant desire for something better. ![]() As with that great odd couple, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, Lowell teaches Sawyer the cook. Stuck in a dangerous business with his ne’er-do-well cousins, Lowell more directly embodies this predicament. In many ways Sawyer’s situation is an apt metaphor for that uniquely small town sense of walls closing in, and the suspicion that one may never escape. Incidentally, they turn out to be not only his cousins, but the ones who distribute his product. Though initially skeptical, she softens when Lowell hides her from her attackers, who are looking for her. Her captor is Lowell (Jay Paulson), a gaunt redhead who cooks meth. When she wakes up again, this time her hands are bound. Having grown distrustful of strangers (with good reason), she immediately tries to escape before being knocked out. When she mutters to herself, as if willing it to be true, “I can figure this out,” she is instantly recognizable to anyone who considers themselves capable of handling any situation.Īfter finally giving into thirst and exhaustion to collapse in the woods somewhere, Sawyer awakens to find herself in unfamiliar territory yet again: a dingy trailer. Following her navigation app, Sawyer turns off the highway to avoid traffic, and quickly finds herself lost on the desolate back roads of rural Kentucky. ![]() When she receives word of a job interview in Washington D.C., the soon-to-be college graduate hops in her red SUV and hits the road. Intimate in scope to its great advantage, “Rust Creek” begins and ends with Sawyer’s journey, with a stable of male friends and foes providing color and intrigue. It’s a move that might be perceived as funny in a more commercial genre film, but is entirely believable in McGowan’s understated and plausible nightmare - making it all the more chilling. It’s hard to choose a single moment that best exemplifies the hard-edged feminist lens at work in director Jen McGowan’s chilling “ Rust Creek,” but the image of the teenage Sawyer (Hermione Corfield) gruffly ripping off her acrylic nails to scale a ditch is a top contender.
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