GRADE: A+

If any film screams Oscar nominations so far this year, it’s Martha Marcy May Marlene (MMMM). Much like 2010’s Winter’s Bone, this film follows an emotionally bruised and confused young girl trying to recover. MMMM thrusts Elizabeth Olsen to the front lines of today’s great young actresses and introduces Sean Durkin as a director to keep an eye on. It’s hard to believe so many newcomers can drive a movie so powerful and confident.

MMMM opens with Martha (Olsen) escaping a cabin by running into the woods. She is confronted at a nearby diner by a male member of what appears to be a cult that she was a part of, who gently asks her to return before allowing her to have some time alone. The beginning of the film kicks off a mystery that keeps this drama in thriller territory.

Martha is an enigma. She is emotionally damaged. Her two-year disappearance was voluntary. She joined a group living in the wilderness that promotes positive living and a shared lifestyle that isn’t threatening at first. It’s so perfectly exposed in the film. For a while, you wonder what she was running from. They find a way to bring you in and comfort you. They seem nice and supportive. Sure, they have oddities – for example, the men eat first, then the women. But overall, they seem fine. Until Martha gets deeper and becomes a greater part of the cult. It grows increasingly sinister, although never sadistic. They are misguided people looking for a different life than what is considered normal.

But this life she lives with the group is only part of the film. It’s masterfully edited in what I would consider the best editing of 2011 so far. Martha spends the present day of the film recovering at her sister’s lakeside cabin. They try to help her, but she is tattered and takes a while to open up, if ever. Nightmares of her experiences haunt her and create a sense of confusion between then and now. This is where the editing comes in. It’s that perfect type of editing. One second she is on a chair asking her sister if it’s okay that she swim in the lake and the next she is swimming naked with the cult. She is never fully aware of her whereabouts and neither are we, until it is specifically shown – but it’s never confusing. In fact, it brings you in and puts the audience in a position of discomfort just like Martha is experiencing.

It’s not just the acting and the editing that make MMMM so stunning. It’s also the unconventional decision to present a film with a faded appearance. It looks like a film dug up from the 70s. For some reason, this look creates an authentic visual that makes this feel; all too real – like some documentary of a lost cult that nobody ever uncovered. It’s a great touch to a film that didn’t even need another thing going for it.

But in the end, MMMM is a thriller. It takes its sweet time getting there. It grows on you. It never forces itself upon the audience with villainous bad men and murderous intents. This is a haunting movie. You keep waiting for something bad to happen and it builds up this tension until the final few minutes of the film that drag you by the balls and punch you in the gut. What an ending! The ending itself is worth the price of admission. But without the 115 minutes before it, you wouldn’t feel the anguish that swept through the crowd as it collectively gasped as the last frame cut to black. This film teaches you to be careful of whom you let in, no matter how gentle they may seem. Your vulnerability is a weakness in the wrong hands. But you can trust me, this film is worth your time.

What Should You Do? Missing this Oscar contender would be a huge mistake.