Eliza Scanlen, center, in The Starling Girl (Brian Lannin/Bleecker Street)

In her opening voice-over, Jem Starling fervently prays for people to not see her for herself. Instead, she wants them to see her as a representative of Christ. Though she comes across as very convincing, it doesn’t take long to understand that she deeply wants to be seen for herself.

That doesn’t sound like a tough ask, but in the strict God-centered Kentucky fundamentalist community where Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) lives with her family, any sign of individualism is quickly ground down, and any desire to be noticed is condemned as vanity. Seventeen-year-old Jem’s life path is laid out for her—as the oldest daughter in her large family, she already is on Mom duty much of the time, and plans are being made for her to marry an appropriate member of the community—the pastor’s youngest son—so she can begin her own family and raise them as Christians. She doesn’t really question whether she wants anything else because she has been taught to believe that this is the only life acceptable to God.

There’s something in Jem, though, that isn’t quite sure that this is what she wants, and all it takes to crack that door in her mind open further is the return of Owen (Lewis Pullman), the pastor’s older son and that most dangerous of characters, the restless youth pastor. Flashing danger signs—like a secret cigarette habit and ideas from the outside world gained from his recent mission to Puerto Rico—he is exactly the kind of spark doomed to set a desperate teen girl on fire.

Writer and director Laurel Parmet’s feature debut seems like a familiar story: a young girl who doesn’t know any better, an older man who should know better, and their belief that they have everything under control, until they don’t. But the real story that Parmet is telling is about a community that fears women and does everything it can to control them, if they dare to imagine a world where they are something other than a cog in the Christian-family machine. Parmet, who had spent time with the women of a patriarchal community in Oklahoma while working on another project, captures all the small details of this world, from the clothes to the words people choose to use, and presents it in a straightforward way without slipping into fire and brimstone melodrama.

There’s a constant push and pull between an acknowledgement that women have to have sex to have children and the threat of them feeling sexually alive in any way. In one early scene, Jem is told who her future husband might be and that she needs to think about getting married soon. Then, minutes later, the pastor’s wife reprimands her for wearing a bra that is visible under her white blouse. So, everyone agrees that Jen is ready to get married and have sex in order to produce children, but she better not be “sexy” or draw attention to her body. Jem is also part of a group of praise dancers. At rehearsals, an older married woman decides if any of their moves need to be taken out for being too seductive. If anyone finds the low-key choreography of praise dancers sexy, well, maybe that’s on them than the dancers. But not here—it’s always the woman’s fault when it comes to sex and sin. And it’s always the girl, like Jem, who will take the brunt of the blame for an affair.

The performances all feel very real and lived in, such as Pullman as the seductive but ultimately weak young pastor, and Jimmi Simpson stands out as Jem’s alcoholic father, who sounds like he is still convincing himself that he made the right choice in leaving behind his life as a secular musician. His daughter, Jem, has been brought up to not express herself, so it’s a challenge for Scanlen to maintain a smooth outer life while also letting us understand an inner turbulent life. Nevertheless, Scanlen succeeds in bringing all the complexities of Jem to life, carrying the film with ease and precision.

Scanlen creates such a vivid character that at the end, I found myself genuinely worried about Jem’s future. She makes the best choice left for her, but that doesn’t ensure her safety and happiness. Her sheltered upbringing has already wrought so much damage that I fear for her, and all the real Jems out there.