The Giant

It’s the end of a scorching summer somewhere in the American South. This is Charlotte’s (Odessa Young, Assassination Nation) last summer vacation before going away to college. She wants to leave as soon as possible: In the wake of her mother’s suicide, there’s no longer anything tying her to her hometown. Her ex-boyfriend Joe (Ben Schnetzer, Snowden, Pride) shows up again unexpectedly, and teenage girls start dying in the area. The Giant suggests more than it shows, blurring the border between reality and hallucination while hiding its biggest secrets in the dark on 35 mm film. The first-time director is not interested in banal answers to criminal riddles; he prefers to consistently build the stifling, unsettling atmosphere of a nightmare you just can’t shake. You can hear faint echoes of the work of David Lowery and Nicholas Winding Refn in the film, but The Giant is above all an attempt—imperfect but still intriguing—by Raboy to find his own directorial voice.