Crookedfinger

Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin follow up their Austin-set 2017 film Barracuda with another low-key drama about strained sibling relations. Crookedfinger centers on Maria (Paula Jon DeRose), a substitute teacher who must deal with the unexpected death of her parents and the return of her estranged brother. The film flirts with thriller elements and has touches of the supernatural but feels grounded in the everyday realities of complex family dynamics. Set on Cape Cod, this quiet picture features an outstanding lead performance by DeRose, an actor I was unfamiliar with, and unsettling turns by Blake DeLong as the unstable brother and Welker White as his massage therapist girlfriend. I wish the film hadn't been so deliberately slow-paced in its first third, as it takes too long to engage with the characters fully, leaving not enough time for the ending to develop its unexpected outcomes. Still, the film is a solid character study that unfolds in a distinctive manner.