White Girl

Frequently difficult to watch, White Girl is the powerful feature debut of a filmmaker with original vision and clear talent -- and a movie that proves a lead actress can possess the gift of transformative performance skills.

Neatly plotted and minimally staged, the movie marks Wood as a talent to watch, but Saylor deserves equal credit for her layered performance as the title character, a confident young woman who crumbles into a confused and frightened child.

First-time writer-director Elizabeth Wood's White Girl sets out to be a Great Gatsby for the 21st century - and perhaps in the process, to depict the orgastic future that Fitzgerald mentioned at the story's end.

White Girl is a shocking and frenetically paced movie, a nightmarish thrill ride comparable to the Safdie brothers' 2017 Good Time that's equal parts exhausting, exhilarating, and heartbreaking to watch.