SIX ACTS

Naïve teen Gili changes schools and is determined to improve her social status at the same time by hooking up with her new school’s coolest guy. Her plan succeeds, and she takes pride in her ability to use her feminine wiles to her advantage. Even when her crush passes her off to his friend, she is happy for the attention. But soon all of the boys know Gili’s reputation, and as each new encounter pushes her limits a little farther, the line of consent begins to blur.

Structured around the eponymous acts of escalating exploitation, Six Acts is an edgy and perceptive portrait of an average girl increasingly consumed by oversexed teenhood. Complicating the simplified way a teen girl’s sexual awakening is conventionally depicted, director Jonathan Gurfinkel approaches his subject with nuance and ambiguity. Gili is certainly not a girl fully in control of her sexual destiny, but neither is she a victim. By probing this intermediate area, Gurfinkel questions conventional ideas of consent, exploitation and complicity in this intelligent and provocative debut feature.

—Cara Cusumano