If you want to watch Felt as a great film, here’s what you must do: Enter the Grand Illusion, take a seat, and at the moment the picture starts, set your smartphone’s timer to vibrate furiously in 58 minutes and 40 seconds. When the alarm goes off, leave the theater as fast as you can. You really do not want to make the mistake of seeing a minute more of this movie, which is so compelling up to this point. The rest of it, which runs for a very long and tedious 20 minutes, is a right and confused mess.

This first part of this film involves a young woman and artist, Amy (Amy Everson), who has experienced something really horrible and violent. We never know exactly what happened to her, but it is clear it was a sex crime. The violence of that experience knocked her completely out of the world, out of normal relationships, and into a dark place where she is very much alone and survives by processing and warping the social and cultural structures of human sexuality with her art.

She has a friend who wants her to get her life back, to become normal again, and to go out on dates. The men she meets at bars are not just creeps, but they have no idea they are creeps. For them, it’s fine to threaten a woman if they feel it is deserved and making rape jokes shows that one has a healthy sense of humor.

Amy eventually meets a man, Kenny (Kentucker Audley), who appears to be sensitive, makes no rape jokes, and appreciates her weird (but not very original) art. Amy’s mood improves considerably; things are looking up for once. And that is the end of the good movie, which also has lots of great lines, performances, and cinematography.

As for the rest of Felt, it inexplicably enters horror territory, horror in the woods, horror with big scissors. And what exactly is wrong with that? Please, do not see for yourself. Just trust me, and leave the theater.