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HH

'Golden Exits'

U.S. Dramatic; 94 minutes.

That old Sundance classic — the dysfunctional family disrupted by a visiting hottie — gets an obtuse reading in "Golden Exits," a maddening exercise in style over substance.

Emily Browning plays Naomi, an Australian college student just landed in New York for a two-month gig as assistant to an archivist, Nick (Adam Horovitz). Naomi's arrival upsets Nick's wife Alyssa (Chloë Sevigny), still smarting from an affair Nick had with a previous assistant. Nick's current assignment is going through the papers of Alyssa's late father, whose publishing business is now overseen by Alyssa's snarky sister Gwen (Mary-Louise Parker).

Meanwhile, Naomi meets up with Buddy (Jason Schwartzman), a recording-studio operator, because their mothers were friends sometime back. Buddy and Naomi start meeting for drinks on a few occasions, a fact Buddy doesn't mention to his wife Jess (Analeigh Tipton). Jess' confidant is her single sister Sam (Lily Rabe), who is also Gwen's underappreciated assistant.

Writer-director Alex Ross Perry, whose "Listen Up Philip" played Sundance in 2014, pieces together incidents and encounters in a vague approximation of a narrative about loneliness and sibling tensions. It's hard to tell, though exactly what Perry's point is, as he loses the thread between the faux-philosophical dialogue and the haphazard pacing.

– Sean P. Means —

Also showing:

"Golden Exits" screens again at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival at the following times and venues:

• Monday, Jan. 23, 6 p.m., Salt Lake City Library Theatre

• Tuesday, Jan. 24, 11:30 a.m., The MARC, Park City

• Friday, Jan. 27, 12:15 p.m., Eccles Theatre, Park City

• Saturday, Jan. 28, 8:30 a.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City