Take Me to the River (2015)
A Nebraskan family reunion couldn’t seem more backwards to a gay Californian teenager when a bloodstain on his young cousin's dress makes him the unwitting suspect of abuse and places him at the center of a long buried family secret.
27 May 1955, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
18 June 1941, Akron, Ohio, USA
28 July 2003, Queens, New York City, New York, USA
7 July 1969, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
9 June 1969, New York City, New York, USA
8 November 1981, Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA
18 February 1992, Colorado, USA
April 01, 2016
You admire Sobel's tenacity, even if his reach exceeds his grasp.March 31, 2016
Take Me to the River is Picnic at Hanging Rock-level cagey about its central mysteries, and while many of its characters know what happened off-screen in both the recent and distant past, they ain't sharing the details with us, just their pain.March 18, 2016
The cheap use of the hot-button issue of pedophilia coupled with negatively minded ignorance regarding homosexuality is not only offensive but-far worse-completely uninvolvingApril 07, 2016
You'll have to see for yourself what a slender plot line, well-chosen parts, and skillful directing can achieve with a handful of rich characters and a deceptively peaceful setting.April 01, 2016
Sobel is clearly trying to hit on something more original than a family-secrets drama, but in doing so, he pulls most of his punches.May 25, 2016
All-too-familiar familial battleground, well-known from decades of low-budget indie drama.April 01, 2016
The movie pivots from what I expected it to be: a family drama about an outsider, as the opening conversation suggests. Instead, it becomes an eerie mood piece about secrets buried deep in a family's fabric.April 21, 2016
Is it me, or is the big climactic reveal not really worth all the hubbub?April 07, 2016
Yet another dysfunctional family drama indie film, writer-director Matt Sobel's Take Me to the River has its flaws. But on the whole, this is an impressive feature debut.April 01, 2016
Sobel evokes more terror from a shot of a field of sunflowers, or a weathered barn, than can be found in the last dozen found-footage films combined.March 31, 2016
The menace never becomes palpable, whether because of illogical plot lines or questionable casting. The stakes are so high, but the suspense never rises to the occasion.May 26, 2016
Matt Sobel transforms a nightmare he once had into an evocative, original drama.