A teacher sexually obsessed with the high school student with whom she’s having an illicit affair gradually loses her bearings in an evocative but ultimately hollow indie drama.
The film is an acting showcase for Lindsay Burdge, whose cheekbones admirably hold the screen in the title role. She is Diana, a pedagogue conducting a decreasingly discreet affair with an amiable but heedless student (Will Brittain). Jealousy and the possibility of being caught (though not shame) start to eat away at her, and much of the film consists of moody slo-mo close-ups of Burdge staring angrily into the distance or trying to pull herself together in front of a mirror.
Writer-director Hannah Fidell, who is only 27, makes the common indie mistake of thinking that a dramatic situation is all you need for a movie, but demonstrates an impressive restraint and an ability to manufacture queasy suspense without much dialogue.
Running time: 75 minutes. Not rated (nudity, profanity, sex scenes). At the Village 7, Third Avenue at 11th Street.