Exclusive: Still Waters Run Deep in This Clip from Kate Can’t Swim (Video)

Surviving your 20s can feel like navigating a minefield of embarrassment and rejection, set to detonate.

It’s easy to see why the subject has proven to be rich territory for filmmakers. One successful example is Lena Dunham’s zeitgeist-seizing Girls, which debuted in 2012. Girls’ courted an enduring amount of criticism over its six-year run, but its unflinching take on the messy, manic 20s has left an equally enduring impact.

Though Girls was a television show, it has helped launch the film careers of several of its principal stars. Allison Williams and Adam Driver both had leading turns in two of last year’s biggest films (Get Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Zosia Mamet has been steadily appearing in features since Girls‘ debut (Weiner-Dog, Bleeding Heart), and can most recently be seen in Josh Helman’s smart new indie Kate Can’t Swim, which she also executive produced.

Kate Can’t Swim follows the titular Kate (Celeste Arias) through a crucial time in her late 20s. “Almost 30, almost engaged, almost settled in her career as a writer,” Kate’s life is shaken up by the return of her best friend Em (Jennifer Allcott, who co-wrote the film with Helman). In one of the clips provided exclusively to MovieMaker below, watch Kate react to the sexually fluid Em’s surprise announcement that she not only picked up a boyfriend in Australia, she’s brought him home to meet her friends. In the second clip, Em’s boyfriend Nick (Helman) spars with Kate’s boyfriend Pete (Grayson DeJesus). As Kate struggles with her suspicions about Nick, she begins to question the very foundations of her young adult life. Watch below. MM

Kate Can’t Swim is available on VOD January 23, 2018, courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media. Video courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media.