Australia, “ten years after the collapse” and 35 years since Mad Max first turned the outback into what’s proven to be the quintessential stomping ground for post-apocalyptic mayhem. Guy Pearce stars as a solitary former soldier determined to retrieve his stolen car from a gang of malignant ne'er-do-wells. Taking a giant step backwards from his freshman feature, director and co-writer David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) serves up enough static two-character dialog exchanges to give the impression much of his story was taken from a stage play, not an original scenario. Moments defy stupidity simply to advance the plot: what arms dealer — no matter how small, stupid, and/or unprofessional — doesn’t know that it’s bad business to hand a customer a loaded weapon? Worth seeing for Robert Pattinson, whose psychotic fragility proves it possible to take the actor out of the Twilight franchise, and take the Twilight franchise out of the actor. (2014) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.