High school teacher Holly (Azura Skye) appears to command the respect of her students, her husband Rob (Bryce Pinkham) is set for a promotion at work, and their two sons seem to be relatively well-adjusted. That makes it even harder to shake the close-up on her bloody hands tightened around a steering wheel that greets us. One look in Holly’s worn-down eyes, and it’s a good bet her pursuit of the American dream is killing her. Also that the nuclear family she works so hard to hold together is about to go atomic. Darkness falls quickly as both husband and wife trade infidelities: Rob with an employee, Holly with a (gulp!) student. The titular road maneuver is executed by Holly on the ride home from a particularly humiliating confrontation with her mother and sister. A pair of young thugs pull alongside, tossing beer cans and invectives her way. In an instant, the headlights fade to black, leaving the car and its contents silenced in a ditch. A relentlessly unshakable albeit unpleasant ride, particularly when filmmaker Dean Kapsalis slaloms around audience expectation, something he skillfully accomplishes for the first two-thirds of the picture. Even when a predictive power swerves the conclusion in the direction of foreseeability, Skye’s redoubtable performance is there to guide us. If there’s been a better performance this year by anyone, male of female, please point me in its direction. (2019) — Scott Marks
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