Early in Toad Road director Jason Banker’s new film Felt, friends Amy (Amy Everson) and Allana (Allana Reynolds) joke about a killing spree against men. It seems like the only way to heal the psychological wounds inflicted upon them by the opposite sex. They laugh about strangling men with their thighs and stabbing a needle through their penises. It’s a humorous and compassionate scene between best pals that begins to hint at the challenging psychosexual drama to unfold.

There’s a vital and crucial conversation that’s been happening the past few years about rape culture and the seemingly inherit aggression towards women that bubbles in our society. Felt addresses the issue not through pretentious preaching but by charting one woman’s experience to her breaking point. And what a nasty breaking point it is.

That woman is Amy, an experimental artist who’s recovering from her past terrible relationships. Details are never fully disclosed but sexual trauma is suggested at through the body suits she makes crafts out of yarn and felt – complete with male genitals. At one point she makes a stocking mask with a coarsely painted face that I assumed was mean to be her rapist. She wears her outfits in the woods, where she idles and dances around. It seems to be her place of security. Just her and the trees united in despondency.

The emotional instability of Amy slowly escalates into a tension that makes an otherwise meandering film feel downright horrific at times. The approaches by men Amy endures on a daily basis may seem mundane at first, but Banker’s naturalistic docu-style gives them a hefty dose of dread. The narrative thread throughout the film is kept very loose, leaving it up to Everson’s performance to be our constant. She’s in nearly every frame of the film and brings with her a realism and fierce presence that’s equally charismatic and sinister.

Felt’s loose cinéma vérité style and improvisational approach may rub a lot of viewers the wrong way – dismissing it as another mumblecore flick where 20-somethings bitch aimlessly about their problems. This is not that film. It sucks us in through the character of Amy and forces its audience to confront the ugly truths about gender in our culture. The film does amble along at times and the stroke of violence that occurs during the climax comes fast and, despite its gore, left me underwhelmed. The tension leading up towards the third act is terribly effective, however, making Felt a must- and most-uncomfortable watch.