Sorry to say, but competition between females of similar age and circumstance is a a foregone conclusion in pop culture. This cliché is explored in nuance, terror, and melodrama in this shrewd, inventive, sometimes hallucinogenic film.

Beth, played by Cailtin FitzGerald, is an emerging ingenue. FitzGerald is essentially Gwyneth Paltrow's younger sister--a beautiful wood nymph whose elegant insouciance assumes good naturedness and assures happy connectedness. Her career has progressed though a fortunate sequence of artistic compromises and ambiguous personal boundaries. She is adored, stealthily competitive, and ultimately unchallenging. Inertia roots for her.

Her counterpart is Anna, played by the ever-avid Mackenzie Davis, best know for Halt and Catch Fire--an intense hybrid of hunger and insolence. She relentlessly dominates Beth as they embark on an ill-conceived girls' weekend, outplaying her mentally and emotionally. Though it scarcely matters, as Beth collects all the indirect accolades in terms of a fan's heart and a veteran actor's interest.

What happens next is warped and deeply uncomfortable. Director Sophia Takal is able to sever ego from artifice to crown a woman that we would like to root for, but cannot really support. She is desperate and uncouth--oh, and homicidal. And that's not who we really are, is it?