The Crescent

The trio boldly rests this uncanny drama on two first-time performers. Danika Vandersteen rises to the challenge with cracking stoicism, portraying a woman haunted by encroaching otherworldly entities and keeping it together while drowning in grief. But her two-year-old co-star steals the show. The natural, unrehearsed presence of young Woodrow Graves (the real-life son of Smith and Urich) endears but also imbues the film with an unpredictable, occasionally anxious undercurrent. And that makes for a unique counterpoint to the controlled, stylish spectacle of the cosmic interludes that the film oscillates into through its experimental and enthralling employment of paint marbling. (Toronto International Film Festival)