Capsule reviews for Aug. 5

Bellflower

Style and attitude overcome some predictable plotting in Bellflower, a testosterone festival that marks a promising debut for writer-director-star Evan Glodell. He plays Woodrow, one of two friends whose life of petty mischief and cool cars is disrupted when he falls for a new girl (Jessie Wiseman), which threatens his friendship with Aiden (Tyler Dawson) and leads instead to feelings of betrayal and violent revenge. The rudimentary script and characters have a certain B-movie appeal, but the real star of the film is Medusa, a flamethrowing car that winds up with a key role. Just don’t think about it too much. (Rated R, 104 minutes)

Magic Trip

Oscar-winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) co-directed with Alison Ellwood this documentary about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author Ken Kesey and his LSD-fueled 1964 road trip with his “Merry Band of Pranksters” to the World’s Fair in New York. The film restores and re-assembles grainy footage from the trip that was never shown to the public, revealing an intriguing time capsule of a movie that isn’t given much context. There are some amusing moments for those familiar with the subjects, but most of it is just bizarre and hardly worth digging up after all these years. (Rated R, 90 minutes)

The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll

A talented cast is wasted in this inept saga starring Kevin Zegers as a rock star struggling to finish his latest album. He tries to reunite with his estranged buddy (Jason Ritter), a songwriter who doesn’t subscribe to the sex-and-drugs lifestyle. So they take a cross-country road trip with an aging impresario (Peter Fonda) and an impetuous manager (Taryn Manning) in an attempt to mend their differences. The screenplay and direction are generic and predictable, assembling clichés of family dysfunction while failing to muster any nostalgic charm. The cast is stranded amid all the trite dialogue and melodramatic scenarios. (Rated R, 92 minutes)