Capsule reviews for June 5

Becky

When you cross Home Alone with Natural Born Killers, the result might resemble this blood-soaked thriller in which a resourceful 13-year-old girl (Lulu Wilson) must singlehandedly outwit and outmaneuver some bumbling neo-Nazi killers to save her family. When a prison escapee (Kevin James) and his gang wind up at her family’s lake house seeking a valuable trinket, it gives Becky — still upset at her widowed father (Joel McHale) for deciding to remarry — an outlet for her recalcitrant rage. The far-fetched concept generates some mild tension for a while, but quickly turns repetitive as the primary focus turns to creatively choreographed death sequences and gratuitous gore. (Rated R, 93 minutes).

The Collini Case

Some clever twists give way to melodramatic contrivances that contribute to an unfavorable verdict for this legal thriller from German director Marco Kreuzpaintner (Summer Storm). It takes place in 2001, when young Berlin attorney Caspar (Elyas M’Barek) is assigned his first major case in defending the apparent killer (Franco Nero) of a prominent businessman. As the trial unfolds and the defendant’s motives remain cloudy, Caspar finds links to his own past, which leads to a more complex conspiracy theory with widespread ramifications. For those who can suspend disbelief, the film provides moderate intrigue while rarely rising above the level of an average “Perry Mason” episode. (Not rated, 123 minutes).

Hammer

As an exploration of how a legacy of violent crime tears apart the fabric of a family, this Canadian thriller rings emotionally hollow. It follows a small-town father (Will Patton) who senses a chance to reconcile with his estranged son (Mark O’Brien) by extricating him from a bad drug deal. That plan turns desperate when they tangle with shady characters eager to cover their tracks amid the dead bodies and missing cash. The performances are solid even if the characters are unsympathetic. The concept might have yielded a taut and provocative short film, but at feature length, it feels strained and struggles to generate consistent tension. (Not rated, 82 minutes).

Jules of Light and Dark

More concerned with mood than plot, this contemplative character-driven drama offers a raw but incisive examination of contemporary relationships and queer identity. Maya (Tallie Medel) is a Texas college student whose relationship with Jules (Betsy Holt) crumbles after a night of partying culminates in a car crash. Maya’s physical and psychological recovery brings her closer to an emotionally scarred oil worker (Robert Longstreet) who rescued her, a deejay (Miles Howard) whose comforting words mask desires of his own, and an affectionate outsider classmate (Liz Cardenas). The screenplay by rookie director Daniel Laabs is an uneven look at loneliness that benefits from nicely understated performances. (Not rated, 85 minutes).

My Darling Vivian

You don’t need to be a country music aficionado to appreciate this documentary about the first wife of Johnny Cash, which also incisively brings new insight into how fame can tear apart a family. Cash married Vivian Liberto in the 1950s in San Antonio, where he was stationed in the Air Force. As his music career took off, and his drug use escalated, the couple’s once deeply committed relationship started to fracture. Vivian’s story is told through candid interviews with their four daughters, who persuasively share a desire to posthumously salvage their mother’s sullied public reputation. While Vivian was notoriously private, her story is worth sharing. (Not rated, 91 minutes).

Shirley

A committed performance by Elisabeth Moss drives this unconventional glimpse into the life of Shirley Jackson, the famed horror novelist who battled mental illness, alcoholism, and other afflictions. The film finds Shirley living in Vermont in the 1960s, when she’s visited by an aspiring writer (Odessa Young) whose husband has landed a job alongside Shirley’s professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg). As the relationship between the two women deepens, it affects Shirley’s work in surprising ways. This intimate and richly textured glimpse into the nature of celebrity and the artistic process from director Josephine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline) sidesteps convention and avoids cheap sympathy for its troubled protagonist. (Rated R, 107 minutes).

Tommaso

The creative chemistry between longtime collaborators Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara registers throughout the iconoclastic filmmaker’s deeply personal exploration of redemption and artistic expression. Dafoe plays an aging American artist living in Rome with his young wife (Cristina Chiriac) and daughter. As he assimilates into the culture and tries to shake his various addictions and vices, he begins work on a new project that draws him psychologically back into his past. Amid its fractured vignettes, this visually striking effort sees Ferrara (Pasolini) indulging in too many eccentricities and heavy-handed narrative detours. Yet it also finds a haunting resonance thanks to Dafoe’s deeply felt portrayal. (Not rated, 117 minutes).

You Don’t Nomi

Do we really need to reconsider the notorious 1995 flop Showgirls? According to this misguided documentary, which takes its name from Elizabeth Berkley’s pole-dancing protagonist, it deserves a second chance. After recapping how the box-office bomb later re-emerged as a cult classic, director Jeffrey McHale proceeds to break down the source material to a far deeper degree than was ever intended, with many of the straight-faced interviewees defending director Paul Verhoeven for his vision and Berkley for her over-the-top portrayal. The problem is that while this sort of analysis might work for a genuinely overlooked gem, here it feels like putting lipstick on a pig. (Not rated, 92 minutes).