The Swerve

Dean Kapsalis's 2018 American film describes how a life that looks perfect from outside rots from within. Holly, a teacher with two sons and a husband, is sleepless and increasingly detached; a mouse in the house, her sister's arrival and what happens one night on the road drive her to lose control entirely. Azura Skye's performance carries the whole film and shows the character's mental collapse without any external diagnosis. Kapsalis shoots the domestic scenes almost in the language of horror: sounds, the kitchen, the hallway. The film's difficulty is that the hopelessness never lifts anywhere; that is a deliberate choice, and it makes for extremely hard viewing. Who it's for: viewers who like accounts of psychological collapse and American independent cinema. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding content about suicide, self-harm and the death of a child, or unable to take a film that offers no consolation.