If the sheer intensity of The Novice's storytelling can at times feel like it's trying too hard to be in-your-face—rather than authentically disturbed—the ambition of Laura Hadaway's direction is still quite the spectacle to behold. Where some of the film's relationships don't come off as complex as they should be, Hadaway and her team more than makes up for with frantic editing, shallow camera focus, panicked strings as a musical score, and heavy breathing mixed deep into the sound design. There's just something violent about how the movie is put together, as Alex (played by Isabelle Fuhrman) tears herself apart for seemingly no other reason than to prove to herself that she can do it.

If small independent films stood more of a chance at each annual awards circuit, Fuhrman should have been a major part of the Best Actress conversation in the year The Novice had its wide release. What she does gives here is nothing short of a powerhouse performance—one that's as physical as it is mental, as her Alex seems hellbent on stripping herself of any sense of self-preservation or empathy so that nothing else remains except the drive to keep pushing forward. And Fuhrman doesn't make her "hard work" seem aspirational. She's simply forcing herself to become the human equivalent of an open, exposed nerve, and it's enthralling to watch.