Capsule reviews for June 24

Beba

Rebeca Huntt’s cinematic self-portrait is not a vanity piece. Rather, her debut documentary is a captivating if uneven glimpse into the immigrant experience, racial and cultural identity, and the elusive American Dream. Huntt tells her own story as a first-generation New Yorker, born in Venezuela, who feels the burden of her overbearing family as she struggles with relationships and finding her artistic voice during early adulthood. Mixing her own raw archival footage with more experimental visual techniques, the film resonates most powerfully — even for those unfamiliar with the specifics of her pain — during Huntt’s quietly cathartic moments of candid introspection amid the chaos around her. (Rated R, 79 minutes).

Bitterbrush

A quietly powerful examination of sisterhood, cultural traditions, and subtle changes in life, this evocative documentary explores a fresh story in a familiar setting. Specifically, it tracks Hollyn and Colie, two range riders spending their last summer herding cattle together in the remote Idaho mountains. As they battle rugged terrain and challenging conditions, with nobody to rely upon but each other and their animals, the young women remain dedicated to their work while pondering their respective futures. As directed with visual flair and a keen eye for detail by Emelie Mahdavian, the film immerses us in the picturesque scenery while chronicling the modernization of Western heritage. (Not rated, 91 minutes).

The Black Phone

Combining familiar horror tropes with throwback visual flourishes, this mildly unsettling thriller from director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange) yields some haunting imagery without delivering many genuine frights. It’s set in a 1970s Colorado town on edge after a series of child abductions by a masked perpetrator called the Grabber (Ethan Hawke). The latest victim is timid Finney (Mason Thames), who is locked in a dark basement with only a mattress, a toilet, and a disconnected rotary phone that keeps ringing. There are surprises along the way, and Hawke brings eerie unpredictability to an enigmatic villain, although the payoff ultimately lacks the punch its setup would suggest. (Rated R, 102 minutes).

Flux Gourmet

For those on the same eccentric wavelength as British auteur Peter Strickland (In Fabric), his latest horror-infused oddity is an amusing trifle both confounding and strangely transfixing. Indeed, there’s a bizarre fascination to following the misadventures of an unnamed sonic collective who sets up residency at an institute devoted to culinary performance art, prompting a series of power struggles and gastrointestinal issues. At its core, the film is a sharp deadpan satire about artistic pretension and commercial influence, as seen through a series of gross-out exaggerations staged with visual flair and muted emotions — in other words, an acquired taste that’s considerably more salty than sweet. (Not rated, 111 minutes).

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Who would have thought a 1-inch-tall anthropomorphic shell could teach us so much about compassion and community? Both playful and poignant, this delightful adaptation of a series of online semi-animated shorts tells a very human story through the resourceful Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate), who has been separated from his family except for his ailing grandmother (Isabella Rossellini), with whom he interacts with guests at a rental house. One of them is filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp, who takes Marcel viral. Exploring themes of isolation and grief with surprising sophistication, the humorous and heartwarming film makes the most of its thumb-sized title character’s unique perspective on the world. (Rated PG, 89 minutes).

Murder at Yellowstone City

The characters and setting feel more familiar than fresh in this derivative Western that aims to recall the style of classic oaters except with a lumbering pace that never delves deeper into genre mythology, squandering a capable cast in the process. After a prospector is killed in the titular frontier town, the sheriff (Gabriel Byrne) arrests a former slave (Isaiah Mustafa) and presumes his guilt. But the local preacher (Thomas Jane) thinks otherwise, causing a rift among the locals that funnels inevitably toward a final showdown. The gun battles are staged with energy, but the gaps between them don’t generate the desired murder-mystery tension. (Rated R, 127 minutes).

Olga

Current events supply a haunting undercurrent to this powerful coming-of-age drama about a teenage gymnast from Ukraine whose dreams are threatened by sociopolitical volatility. It’s set in 2014, during the buildup to the Maidan disturbances in Kyiv. Olga (Anastasia Budiashkina) is sent to a gymnastics academy in Switzerland by her single mother (Tanya Mikhina), a journalist whose livelihood is threatened by the Russian government. As Olga tries to adjust while preparing for the European championships, she’s torn by the conflict in her homeland. An expressive and empathetic performance by real-life gymnast Budiashkina lends authenticity to a tale that overcomes some melodramatic contrivances with gut-wrenching urgency. (Not rated, 86 minutes).

Press Play

While capturing the nostalgic charm of a teenage romance defined by Walkmans and cassette mixtapes, this science-fiction melodrama can’t find a rhythm to match its hook. It centers on a Hawaiian artist (Clara Rugaard) who falls for a record-store employee (Lewis Pullman), only to have their relationship cut short by a tragic accident. But when she reconnects with the music they once shared, she finds a key to the past that might keep their connection alive. The film complements its tropical setting with an appealing soundtrack of alt-pop love songs, but the trite ending and lack of emotional depth give it a familiar refrain. (Rated PG-13, 85 minutes).

Rise

Giannis Antetokounmpo is inspirational both on and off the basketball court, but this watered-down biopic of the Milwaukee Bucks superstar settles for a generic rags-to-riches trajectory. It rarely digs beneath the surface of his upbringing, which included moving from Nigeria to Greece with his tight-knit family. As they scrape by as undocumented immigrants, their parents risk everything so that teenage phenom Giannis (Uche Agada) and his older brother, Thanasis (Ral Agada), have a chance to fulfill their hardwood dreams. The result is earnest and heartwarming, which is the point, but misses an opportunity to explore the struggles of immigrant families with more depth and conviction. (Rated PG, 111 minutes).