Drama anchored in peril at the ends of the world

Say that The big turn takes place in the American desert is technically true but it’s also an understatement. The stark, unsettling beauty of West Texas, with its cliffs, canyons and ghost towns, is not a mere backdrop to this well-observed drama; this permeates the film on a molecular level. Brett Wagner’s atmospheric feature film – which began its theatrical journey a few years after playing the festival circuit – revolves around a holiday reunion that proves anything but relaxing for two couples and their school-aged children . With its blend of casual intimacy and stressed-out intensity, the story pushes the characters out of their not-so-comfortable comfort zones and into uncharted territory that is simultaneously tantalizing, terrifying, and indulgent.

The allure of mystery and adventure is present from the start, in the tracking shot that opens the film: a view through the windshield of a car traveling on a two-lane highway. The Travelers Are Married to Cory (Jason Butler Harner, from New Jerseyites) Ozark) and Mélanie (Virginia Kull, Imperfections), in a rental SUV with their daughters (Zoë Wagner and Delilah Wagner, the helmsman’s daughters).

They’re on their way to visit friends who renovated an adobe on 20 acres of cacti and brush. The expanse of the Lone Star State unfolding before them (a region that features significantly in the latter stretches of Lily Gladstone’s independent film). The unknown country) suggests a permeable boundary between the seductive and the precarious, a collision between the dreamscape and the everyday that is a defining quality of Wagner’s film.

Stopping to admire the mysterious lights of Marfa, Cory looks out at the rural night with a particular pain that will color almost all of his interactions, for reasons that gradually reveal themselves. Although there is tension between Cory and Melanie over his determination to keep a certain “situation” secret from their friends, there is also a deep connection, a playful ease and a still strong sexual attraction – an obvious contrast with the tension between their hosts, the impulsive Macs (David Sullivan, who starred in the 2004 Sundance hit Primer) and disillusioned Georgia (Erica Ash, from Survivor’s remorse), who is watched from a mile away as she vapes weed in their outdoor bathtub while he masturbates to porn in the bathroom.

Long before a visit to the national park turns disastrous, all four actors are superb at conveying the connections and divisions between their characters, and the fact that this reunion won’t be just a vacation. The groaning water heater that Mac intends to repair adds an ominous bass note to the feeling of…