Take Me to the River at Real Art Ways

A Nebraskan family reunion couldn’t seem more backwards to a gay Californian teenager. If Ryder had his way, he’d choose a moment just like this to come out. For his mother’s sake, however, he agrees to keep quiet, save parading around in his most audacious pair of short-shorts.

Ryder’s antics raise dubious eyebrows from his hardened cowboy relatives, but 9-year-old Molly can’t get enough. She follows her cool California cousin everywhere, but a strange encounter makes Ryder the sudden target of suspicion, and places him at the center of a long-buried family secret.

Anchored by a breakthrough performance by Logan Miller as Ryder and rich, dramatic turns by Robin Weigert and Josh Hamilton, TAKE ME TO THE RIVER constantly forces one to question any given character’s culpability until the film’s finale. The film, woven together by an omnipresent sense of dread, is the masterful debut from writer/director Matt Sobel.