Set in rural America, the excellent "Cicada Song" scrapes away at the thin veneer of a deceptively idyllic farming community, only to unearth a nefarious ugliness that transcends boilerplate small-town stereotyping.
Karen (Lyndsey Lantz) manages farm operations for a grateful husband and wife team (Joseph Bottoms and Kim Reed). At night, she returns home to her Latina partner, convenience store clerk Annabelle (Jenny Mesa). Lantz is handed a deeply dimensional character by writer/director Michael Starr, and she owns it at the highest level. Honest and tenacious, at one moment Karen vehemently protects the financial interests of her employers, while in the next she's loyally defending her girlfriend (and herself) from latent misogyny and explicit homophobia. A pall is cast when migrant worker Javier (Cesar Ramos) informs Karen that a little girl has gone missing from the field worker community. And with that, a perverse and encompassing pyramid scheme begins to seep up through the farmland soil.
"Cicada Song" is an engrossing mystery-thriller hybrid that shines a deft light on the plights of socially and economically marginalized groups facing entrenched greed and ignorance. But it's also simply a great storytelling vehicle on the most puerile of levels, marked by plot twists that surprise while somehow remaining truthful. Highly recommended. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)
