The evocative closing shot in Cusp — a documentary whose aesthetic beauty counterpoints the raw experiences mostly shrugged off by its unguarded subjects — shows three young women at a local swimming hole as one takes a flying leap off the rocks high above the water.
The image conjures associations with countless American coming-of-age stories, incisively capturing the exhilaration and fear of having a whole life ahead of you.
Debuting directors Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt's véritéportrait of a tight-knit trio of teenage girlfriends in a small Texas military town has many similar moments of illumination, even if its poignant insights don't quite cohere into a robust through-line.
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