“New friends at my age mean one thing — more funerals,” scoffs Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki), the matriarch of the Shinoda family, as she attempts to work past the recent death of her husband. If American filmmakers could write characters half as observant and compelling as Hirokazu Koreeda, you’d never again hear me rail against geezer porn. Alas, just when it feels safe to embrace Yoshiko as the central figure she so clearly deserves to be, the focus shifts to her son Ryôta (Hiroshi Abe), an on-the-skids novelist making a living as a P.I., and it stays there for the remainder of the picture. I’m always eager to hear this filmmaker’s sapient observations concerning the human condition, but his take here on police procedurals hardly kicks the doors down. It’s too easy to imagine this as the result of a teacher assigning his Film Tech 101 class the task of producing imitation Koreeda. (2016) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.