Having grown distrustful of strangers (with good reason), she immediately tries to escape before being knocked out. Corfield, who boasts bit parts in popular franchises such as “Star Wars,” “Mission: Impossible,” and “xXx,” will have a long career. Sawyer manages to break free, but not before sustaining a bloody injury to the leg. The situation Sawyer has unwittingly stumbled into is much more complicated than a simple I Spit On Your Grave scenario, leading to a slow-burn character-driven drama as Sawyer, forced to hide out with Lowell in his isolated drug lab, gets to know the thoughtful amateur chemist, and him to know her. for violence, language and some drug material. Enter local yokels Hollister (Micah Hauptman) and Buck (Daniel R. Hill), whose leering offers of a place to stay for the night are laden with unspoken danger. With nowhere left to run, she is forced into an uneasy alliance with Lowell (Jay Paulson), an enigmatic loner with shadowy intentions. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. Under McGowan’s restrained direction, “Rust Creek” is an impressive example of good storytelling overriding budget and star power. The complexity of that situation means that Sawyer is notably absent from much of the second half of Rust Creek, which instead spends significant time at the local sheriff’s office with earnest Deputy Katz (Jeremy Glazer) and corrupt Sheriff O’Doyle (Sean O’Bryan). And it appears that “Rust Creek” is going to be exactly a low-budget hillbilly horror film when Sawyer pulls over to check a map on her hood and a couple of clearly-no-good dudes pull over to “help.” Before you know it, her car door has been blocked and she’s been groped, but Sawyer fights back hard. Her captor is Lowell (Jay Paulson), a gaunt redhead who cooks meth. An overachieving college student gets lost on her way to a job interview. CIFF 2020: Black Perspectives Program Highlights Diverse Voices, CIFF 2020: The Roger Ebert Award Returns to Champion New Voices, Immerse Yourself in Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project #3. Interspersed with her increasingly desperate attempts to clean her wound, news of an abandoned vehicle reaches the local police station. Most people flip to something else on Netflix or just lament their awful choice of VOD and find another movie to watch. Though initially skeptical, she softens when Lowell hides her from her attackers, who are looking for her. Though she’s not sure she can trust him, Sawyer must take a chance if she hopes to escape Rust Creek alive. She’s a device more than an actual person, and so we struggle to care what happens to her. Hollister and Buck must find Sawyer before she draws attention to what the boys are really up to. 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. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. Directed by Jen McGowan. 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. Impressively fending off two men with a rigor that belies her small frame, she hurries off into the woods, abandoning her car on the side of the road. Copyright © 2020 Penske Business Media, LLC. The austere minimalism of “Rust Creek” works to the movie’s advantage. You can feel the cold Southern air even as the sunlight streaks through the trees. It’s a remarkably confident use of setting, and the most well-done aspect of the film. I found myself more invested in the ins and outs of the drug trade in Kentucky than the plight of the woman who got stuck in it. Critics have a different response, which is akin to “Oh no, another 80 minutes of this?” The first twenty minutes of “Rust Creek” destroyed a good mood in this particular critic as dread set in over not would happen to the film’s protagonist but how long the next hour was going to feel. And the biggest problem of all is that Sawyer is the least engaging, least realized character from Julie Lipson's script. Incidentally, they turn out to be not only his cousins, but the ones who distribute his product. When she wakes up again, this time her hands are bound. But although what we get instead stands on its own merits, this survival thriller could have used a few more thrills. Screenwriter Julie Lipson’s well-written, naturalistic dialogue helps pass the time, as does Michelle Lawler’s lovely scenic cinematography. Lest we be lulled into a false sense of impending relief, an eager rookie (Jeremy Glazer) is more concerned than the jaded Sheriff (Sean O’Bryan), who has a disturbing familiarity with Sawyer’s attackers. Most of us who have done any amount of traveling have been there, rerouted through small towns to avoid an accident on a major byway. And she ends up sketching a surprisingly vibrant world in these Kentucky woods, thanks in large part to great cinematography by Michelle Lawler. Sawyer’s attackers aren’t smart enough or interesting enough to be the film’s true villains, so McGowan introduces another ally for Sawyer and a few local cops who may have hidden agendas. Rust Creek starts off like any number of films about a beautiful young woman menaced by rednecks in the isolated backwoods of some godforsaken hellhole (Kentucky, in this case): Sawyer (Hermione Corfield) is a bright, ambitious college student who, at the beginning of the film, sets out on a road trip to Washington, DC, where she’ll interview for her dream job. But that doesn’t happen, either. The problem with “Rust Creek” comes back to tone and protagonist. (Don’t worry; it doesn’t turn into a love story, either.) 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