Director Jodie Foster’s latest is one long series of narrative gotchas masquerading as moral or intellectual sophistication before finally revealing that it offers nothing more than world-weary sentimentality. (I guess after you’ve gutted everything else — moral outrage, systemic corruption, media vampirism, basic human decency, the plight of the common man, etc. — you need to reassure folks that it’s still nice to have a good buddy around.) Lee Gates (George Clooney) is hosting his goofball cable financial news show when sad sack Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) slips onto the set and takes him hostage. It seems Kyle lost it all after investing in Walt Camby’s (Dominic West) troubled company IBIS, which Gates touted as a sure thing. Now he wants answers, and none of your fancy talk about algorithms and glitches, thank you very much. It’s up to show director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) to figure a way out of all this, even if it means bringing in hackers ex machina. Sigh. (2016) — Matthew Lickona
This movie is not currently in theaters.