In her previous film, A Teacher, writer-director Hannah Fidell examined the unconventional affair between a high-school teacher and her student. The filmmaker continues her focus on forbidden relationships in 6 Years when a long-term romance gets tested by betrayal and a new job opportunity. With an improvised script, small-name actors, and a naturalistic relationship, it’s no surprise that indie gods Mark and Jay Duplass were executive producers on the film.

It’s challenging to demonstrate years worth of chemistry, inside banter, and the subtle cadence between two people accurately on film; Fidell doesn’t seem to have that problem here. The two leads, Dan (Ben Rosenfield) and Mel (Taissa Farmiga), portray convincing soulmates who’ve grown up together since childhood and have been dating for six years. They have the kind of relationship that can sense something is wrong from just a tiny inflection in each others voice. And they can easily tell when the other has had too much to drink, regardless of how much the other tries to deny it.

As young college students tend to do, the couple takes full advantage of their freedom and lack of responsibility by spending most of their time drinking and partying with friends. One night a boozed up Mel visits Dan and tries to get frisky with him. But the mood is killed when an argument breaks out after Dan discovers she drove in this condition. A vocal argument turns physical and puts Dan in the hospital with some minor injuries (a gender role reversal in domestic disputes that’s rarely shown in films).

Dan isn’t portrayed as a saint either. Like many troubled relationships, both parties are guilty of making mistakes of their own. Over some beers one night, Dan leans over and kisses his female co-worker (Lindsay Burdge, in a somewhat reprised role from A Teacher). He realizes his mistake right away and stops before anything else happens. But the damage unfolds a few scenes later when Mel borrows his phone and finds a text message that exposes his incident.

There are a few scenes in 6 Years that feel a bit cliche. In two different parts in the film, the couple inadvertently walk in on each other in various sexual situations; Dan needs to borrow Mel’s laptop and finds she was watching porn (another refreshing gender role reversal) and Mel conveniently catches Dan sleeping with someone else. But these few melodramatic spots in the script are overshadowed by stunning performances from Rosenfield and Farmiga. Rosenfield channels his inner Mark Duplass, capturing his introverted and down-to-earth mannerisms, while Farmiga brings a lot of energy and passion to a less desirable role as the “manipulative one.”

6 Years captures what a long-term relationship feels like when it nears the breaking point. First love is a powerful beast, but its fate is often doomed from failing to accept that sometimes ending a relationship is better than trying to stick it out. Fidell illustrates this powerful realization in the final emotional scene of uncertainty. It’s heartbreaking. 6 Years distances itself from other flawed relationship narratives with its excellent acting and fresh take on gender roles.

A Teacher is in many ways a reversal of the story that is normally told; featuring an older female authoritative figure (a teacher) having an affair with a younger male (a student). On top of that, the adolescent is more rational and stable than the adult. Hannah Fidell’s first feature is wisely not a public service announcement about some scandalous sexual predator, the affair is consensual and presumably even legal. Having said that, everyone (including the characters) knows that the sexual relationship between a teacher and a student is not morally right, and that taboo is what the film is about.

We follow an attractive high school English teacher named Diana Watts (Lindsay Burdge) through her daily routine which begins with a commute to the school that she teaches at. Because she gets along well with her students, she is as in control of her class as any high school teacher can be. But we come to learn that she does not have that same control of herself. After work Diana meets up with her friend Sophia (Jennifer Prediger) inside a brilliant danger-red illuminated bar, where we find out about her dark side. Diana tells Sophia that she is sort of seeing this guy from school, but what she fails to mention is that it is one of her students. This little nugget of information is exposed in the next scene when she seduces a male student that was seen in her class earlier.

Keeping a secret of this magnitude in a setting such as a high school is as difficult as you imagine it would be. This is especially the case when Eric (Will Brittain) stays behind class and goes in for a risky kiss that any bystander walking by could easily witness. But things get complicated when Diana is roped into chaperoning a school dance where she is forced to watch Eric dance with a classmate. The eerie ambient score in addition to Diana’s deadpan emotions suggest that this pot of boiling water is about to overflow.

While the fate of the characters is obvious from the beginning, the actual cause of Diana’s inner turmoil is for better or worse never explained. Her issues are only hinted at in a brief and cryptic scene early on when her brother mentions their sick mother, which Diana clearly wants nothing to do with. Thus, there is no clear explanation as to what she is running from when she jogs down the street in several scenes of the film. All we know is that she is running away from something, which is equally as intriguing as it is exasperating.

Although Diana puts on smiles and a cheerful attitude at work, she is really hiding behind a dark unraveling breakdown of her sanity. Lindsay Burdge does a great job playing the role of a troubled character who has a wide range of diverse emotions. Aiding in the portrayal of her self-destruction is the shrewd paring of the unnerving score and discomforting visuals found throughout the film.

A Teacher is so brief (only runs 75 minutes) that if feels like there is 20 minutes missing from the beginning of the film. Some people could argue that the narrative lacks due to the relationship already in progress from the start. It becomes clear that the ambiguity was Fidell’s intention when you consider the ending continues with the trend. Whether or not Burdge’s performance and the stunning visuals are enough to carry the intentionally obscure narrative will come down to personal preference.

A Teacher trailer