Capsule reviews for Jan. 18

An Acceptable Loss

A committed performance by Tika Sumpter (Southside With You) can’t save this heavy-handed political thriller, set in 2023, in which she plays a college professor whose checkered past includes a controversial stint as national security advisor for the vice president (Jamie Lee Curtis). The administration’s foreign policy decisions during her tenure makes her a target for protests, and has fueled round-the-clock paranoia at school and home, especially when a student (Ben Tavassoli) begins stalking her. The screenplay by director Joe Chappelle (Phantoms) raises the stakes from there, yet squanders its suspense due to a series of progressively improbable twists that feel more contrived than provocative. (Rated R, 102 minutes).

Adult Life Skills

Overloaded with quirks and short on genuine emotional resonance, this British trifle chronicles a slacker (Jodie Whittaker) still reeling from a past tragedy. Her mother (Lorraine Ashbourne) demands she grow up and move out of the ramshackle shed where she drowns her sorrows, plays with hand puppets, and exhibits various other symptoms of arrested development. Whittaker (“Doctor Who”) is charming enough and elicits some laughs, although our sympathy for her character tends to stem more from pity than from identification with her internal strife. None of the supporting roles in the script by rookie director Rachel Tunnard is fleshed out enough to warrant much investment, either. (Not rated, 96 minutes).

Canal Street

Heavy-handed execution drowns out the worthwhile messages of compassion in this earnest and heartfelt drama about race relations in Chicago. After a white suburban teenager (Kevin Quinn) is found murdered after a night of partying, a black classmate (Bryshere Gray) becomes the primary suspect. He proclaims his innocence to his attorney father (Mykelti Williamson) who must defend him not only in the courtroom, but against preconceptions of his guilt in the community and the media. Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq more effectively explored similarly volatile territory. However, this film is powerful in some of its more intimate, character-driven moments, yet overall lacks the subtlety to match its ambition. (Rated PG-13, 97 minutes).

Don’t Come Back from the Moon

Although its elliptical style borders on pretentious, this character-driven drama gradually taps into some genuine issues involving parents, and specifically absentee fathers. Specifically, it tracks a wayward teenager (Jeff Wahlberg) in 1970s California whose father (James Franco) suddenly disappears, throwing his life into turmoil along with his mother (Rashida Jones) and younger brother. Then his new girlfriend (Alyssa Steinacker) has a similar experience that threatens their romance. Aside from some heavy-handed visual gimmickry, the uneven screenplay by director Bruce Thierry Cheung (Future World) is a quietly powerful glimpse into fractured families and the importance of male role models that achieves a heartfelt contemporary resonance. (Not rated, 82 minutes).

The Last Man

Hayden Christensen’s unfortunate career trajectory has gone from Anakin Skywalker to the title role in this ridiculous dystopian fantasy, which is laughable before settling into a pattern of depressing tedium. In a near-future urban wasteland, he plays a former soldier haunted by PTSD who becomes an acolyte of a conspiracy theorist (Harvey Keitel in a fright wig) prophesying the end of the world. But his survival preparations are complicated by his own internal demons. The film brings a gritty visual texture to its bleak futuristic landscape, but the screenplay by rookie director Rodrigo Vila is a muddled and incoherent mess of clichés without any emotional anchor. (Rated R, 104 minutes).

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek

With its confined setting and small cast, this mildly taut yet ultimately exasperating ensemble drama might resonate better on stage. Drawing obvious inspiration from Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, it’s a thematically ambitious debut for director Henry Dunham, whose story follows an ex-cop (James Badge Dale) who sequesters fellow right-wing militia members in a warehouse following a mass shooting at a police funeral. The resulting interrogation aims to uncover the truth — it turns out an assault rifle is missing — before the authorities close in. Solid performances elevate this examination of gun culture and survivalist paranoia, but the suspense gradually dwindles as the twists only sporadically pay off. (Rated R, 88 minutes).