Capsule reviews for Aug. 4

Brother

Deeply felt and richly nuanced, this Canadian drama about self-discovery and fragile family dynamics resonates beyond the specifics of its setting. Soft-spoken Michael (Lamar Johnson) lives in Toronto with his older brother (Aaron Pierre), an aspiring rapper lured to the streets, and his single mother (Marsha Stephanie Blake), a Jamaican immigrant who endures a downward spiral after a tragedy. It’s up to Michael to hold the family together while navigating adolescent pressure and rising tension over police relations in their largely minority community. Although the nonlinear structure seems forced, the screenplay by director Clement Virgo provides a powerfully authentic examination of masculinity, identity, and sibling bonds. (Not rated, 119 minutes).

The Collective

The climactic comeuppance in this low-budget action saga is reasonably intense, but getting there is more tedious than thrilling. Sam (Lucas Till) is a hotshot new recruit to the titular top-secret group of assassins run and convinces his boss (Don Johnson) he’s ready to take on a sex trafficking ring operated by rich billionaires. However, Sam winds up going rogue and teaming up with a veteran agent (Tyrese Gibson) as eager to put the newbie in his place as he is to catch the bad guys. High on brooding and macho posturing, and low on subtlety and nuance, the film lumbers toward the aforementioned showdown. (Not rated, 86 minutes).

A Compassionate Spy

As a fascinating companion piece to Oppenheimer, this provocative documentary from director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) probes the moral complexities of the Manhattan Project from a different perspective. Its subject is Ted Hall, who was the youngest physicist at Los Alamos during the 1940s. He became disenfranchised with the subsequent global arms race and traded secrets with the Soviets, which brought him under government scrutiny during the Red Scare. The film mixes re-enactments with candid interviews with Hall’s widow, providing a touching relationship angle to a story that starts slow before gaining steam as a tense thriller about a complicated man with a checkered legacy. (Not rated, 102 minutes).

Corner Office

Jon Hamm helped set the bar high for corporate satire in “Mad Men,” but his best efforts can’t keep this surreal deadpan comedy from deserving a pink slip. Hamm plays Orson, who is hired for a desk job at an anonymous firm, where his pretentious insistence on order and routine leads him to ponder the incompetence of his eccentric co-workers. The monotony leads Orson to discover a hidden room that becomes an oasis, even as his colleagues insist it doesn’t exist. Relying heavily on droll narration, the film’s amusing absurdist vibe produces some laughs but its one-note premise becomes tiresome well before it clocks out. (Rated PG-13, 101 minutes).

Klondike

Encapsulating much of the brutality and sociopolitical turmoil that has ravaged Ukraine for the past decade, this powerfully bleak drama effectively modulates visual style and narrative tone to maximize its emotional impact. Depicting the fallout of the shooting down of an airliner over the Donbass region in 2014, the film focuses on a pregnant landowner (Oxana Cherkashyna) and her husband (Sergey Shadrin) who stand their ground amid the violence of military intervention from Russian forces, causing a rift in their family and facing an uncertain future. Favoring long takes, director Maryna Er Gorbach’s screenplay shrewdly incorporates absurdist humor and doesn’t wallow in heavy-handed sentimentality. (Not rated, 100 minutes).

Mob Land

As generic as its title, this ultraviolent crime thriller squanders a solid cast and loses its deeper thematic ambitions in cliched confrontations. In a downtrodden Deep South small town, Shelby (Shiloh Fernandez) robs a pill mill to help his family, only to run afoul of the local mob enforcer (Stephen Dorff) who threatens Shelby’s wife (Ashley Benson) and child. Meanwhile, a philosophical sheriff (John Travolta) tries to play peacekeeper amid a maze of cloudy motives and shifting loyalties. Rookie director Nicholas Maggio employs a frenetic visual approach in a misguided attempt to enliven an otherwise lumbering noir that only hints at meaningful character depth. (Rated R, 111 minutes).

Passages

Body language and facial expressions speak louder than the dialogue in this intimate and quietly perceptive romantic drama from director Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange). It’s set in Paris, where filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) finds his relationship with British artist Martin (Ben Whishaw) is more about physical than emotional attraction. Tomas begins an affair with a female schoolteacher (Adele Exarchopoulos), which throws the future for all three into turmoil — if only they could resist the temptation. The actors generate hard-earned sympathy from characters who are impulsive and selfish, while the bilingual screenplay dissects the relationship from all three sides with a raw and often painful honesty. (Not rated, 91 minutes).

Shortcomings

Exploring familiar characters through a fresh cultural lens, the directorial debut of actor Randall Park is a slight but amusing romantic comedy about the effects of ethnic identity on relationships. It centers on Ben (Justin Min), a misanthropic San Francisco cinema manager who endures a downward spiral after a breakup with his girlfriend, an aspiring model (Ally Maki). While searching for his ideal woman, frustration and jealousy prompt Ben’s usual sarcasm to become outwardly hostile, including toward his best friend (Sherry Cola). Even when it struggles to balance silly with sincere, the film agreeably mixes quirky laughs with sharp observations about race, representation, perceptions, and expectations. (Rated R, 92 minutes).

What Comes Around

After unspooling its most significant twists halfway through, this unsettling thriller about obsession and hidden family secrets from director Amy Redford — daughter of Robert — lacks the emotional depth to remain compelling throughout. Tauter at the start than the finish, it follows a teenager (Grace Van Dien) who remains buried in her phone texting with a much older boyfriend (Kyle Gallner) she met online. As their romance deepens, and they awkwardly decide to tell her mother (Summer Phoenix), suspicions arise about possible ulterior motives. The tightly wound screenplay generates appropriate discomfort while probing the ethics of its relationship complications before bogging down in melodramatic contrivances. (Not rated, 85 minutes).