What’s the point of white privilege if it doesn’t protect you from disaster and despair? Brendan and Emmett Malloy’s adaptation of Karen Croner’s novel (she also scripted) about familial trouble in paradise doesn’t quite work: the booky voiceovers are too precious and too present, the philandering dad is too clueless about the damage he’s doing, and the depressed mom (a brave Jennifer Garner) is too crazy to consider as a character. And yet: Maika Monroe and newcomer Cody Fern are compelling as the kids who suffer the fallout of their parents’ blowup. (She takes it better than he does, mostly because she doesn’t take Dad’s desertion personally, but also because Mom uses her son as an emotional stand-in — “you’re the man of the house now,” indeed.) And the Malloys know something about mood: the awful intimacy of family, the chilly isolation of wealth, the soothing cool of the surf. (2017) — Matthew Lickona
This movie is not currently in theaters.