Ned Rifle is the final film in a trilogy that veteran indie director Hal Hartley began almost 20 years ago with Henry Fool. If you have not seen the first two films, which concern the parents, Fay Grim (Parker Posey) and Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), of Ned Rifle (Liam Aiken), you need not worry.

Much of the relevant background is explained by Ned in the course of his journey from a witness protection program in a Christian-centered East Coast town to Seattle, where his evil, satanic, but intellectually brilliant father was last seen. His mother is in prison serving a life sentence, and his uncle, Simon Grim, a Nobel Prize-winning poet who is considering a new career as a stand-up comic, is being stalked by a beautiful but completely crazy graduate student, Susan (Parks and Recreation‘s Aubrey Plaza).

To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed this film for the same reason I enjoy all of Hartley’s work—it’s not realistic at all and perpetually swings between professorial headiness and boyish silliness. The film does have, however, this very serious message at its core: It’s wrong for an adult to have sex with a minor, even if the minor enjoys it or wants it. For the sake of a young person’s sanity, a clear line must be maintained between an adult and a child. I very much agree with this message.