At an Akron, Ohio, university med student Benny (Frias) meets flirty rival mudball player Christopher (Donovan), an arts student. In this first flush of romance, Benny finds support from his pal Julie (Rose) and his parents (Burns and Melendez), plus teasing from his little sister Becca (Machado). So Benny develops a strong relationship with Christopher and they head off to Florida together for spring break with Christopher's mother (da Luz). But a past event sends their relationship down an unexpected rocky road.

Frias and Donovan are relaxed and natural, athletic young men who are powerfully attracted to each other. As Benny's parents, Burns and Melendez offer a terrific perspective, a bit taken aback to watch their child make his own decisions. And da Luz plays a rather more open-minded woman who has been through quite a lot. What happens between them allows the actors to give sometimes startlingly authentic performances that have real impact.

Still, the film is squeaky clean, more cute than sexy, with only one real shadow: Benny and Christopher had a fateful encounter many years earlier, portrayed in a pre-title sequence. Christopher is haunted by this long before Benny makes the connection, leaving the audience waiting for the other shoe to drop. Their awkward feelings are what drive the film forward, and they're strongly resonant. Even talking about this event leaves a space in the room. And while every character wants to bury what happened, the film takes a more provocative approach.

Yes, this is a story about how difficult it is to achieve true reconciliation, because it requires accepting the pain and sometimes embracing it. Filmmakers King and O'Donnell keep the film's tone introspective and inquisitive, letting deeper feelings gurgle to the surface along the way. It's not a particularly artful film, but the observations are honest. And what it has to say about people who simply refuse to move forward, blaming others for their issues, is seriously powerful.

Mats (Kuhnke) is working on a scientific research vessel off the coast of Korea, and his captain (Horovitch) isn't too happy that a team of Americans led by Edwards (Salt) has arrived with their own agenda. They take Mats' creaky mini-sub on a murky mission into North Korean waters, immediately sparking a power struggle between Mats and Edwards, with added fireworks from Edwards' cohorts Parks and Denholm (McArdle and Levey). And Mats soon realises that he has no choice but to go along with the Yanks' dangerous, under-explained plan.

The mission boils down to arming and exploding some sort of "device" that's liable to decimate the sub but can't fall into the hands of the North Koreans or Chinese. As everything goes wrong, Mats quietly emerges as the only sensible person on board. This allows Parker to blind the audience with science, never properly explaining anything while hinting at dramatic perils. But it's difficult for us to feel any real suspense when everything is so cliched. Instead, we have a visceral reaction to the steely editing and pulsing ambient sound score.

Parker adds to the grave, ominous tone by having the characters take everything super-seriously. Their discussions are so dry that it's difficult to connect with them. That said, the words are basically irrelevant, because the plot would be obvious with the sound switched off. The actors bring plenty of intensity to their roles, which are relatively interchangeable. McArdle is the requisite hothead, while Kuhnke's Mats is enjoyable as he outthinks the others while pretending to cooperate, issuing warnings of doom that spark nasty outbursts.

The impending geo-political crisis is nothing more than background noise here. The only point here is that four people are trapped underwater in leaky tin can. Two-thirds of the film features them jostling for control, all equally annoyed and scared, looking for a solution to their predicament. Much of this involves shouting and punching and grappling for a way to escape this impossible situation. But the thrills are empty without any larger issues or deeper themes. Parker and his fresh cast clearly have talent, so let's hope they get something meatier to work with next time.

In a romanticised present-day Northern California, Elaine (Robinson) is running away from her past life, settling in a small town known for its tolerance of her witchcraft practices. She strikes up a friendship with neighbour Trish (Waddell), then sets out to find love using her special spells and potions. And she seems unfazed when her first target Wayne (Parise) dies in the attempt. She moves on to Trish's husband Richard (Seeley). And when that goes wrong, she turns her attentions to hunky detective Griff (Keys) with help from her witchy friends (Ingrum and Sanford).

Writer-director Biller pretty much does everything here, from designing the sets and costumes to editing the film and composing the florid score. As a result, this is a uniquely sure-handed parody, impeccably capturing the silliness of period-style filmmaking. Scenes are drenched in colour, while every moment of interaction features layers of lusty subtext. And the actors strike just the right tone, remaining nonplussed by the outrageous goings on.

Robinson is hilariously blank-faced in the central role, as Elaine is clearly unconcerned about the carnage she is leaving in her wake. Her saucer-like eyes, epic hair and saturated dress sense cleverly echo Elaine's focussed personality as she searches desperately for the perfect man while preaching about the power of women. Waddell's Trish is more sympathetic as the wounded wife with conflicting thoughts about Elaine. And the men are little more than puppy dogs, helpless to resist Elaine's charms and spells.

Biller is a very clever filmmaker (see also her 2007 pastiche Viva), packing the movie with pointed commentary about gender issues. But the story begins to drag in the final act, mainly because we're in on the complexities of the joke. So it feels a bit repetitive as it piles on even more wacky imagery and settings while losing focus on the various strands of the plot. The scenes are still witty and packed with visual, verbal and thematic gags, but as it drags on it becomes somewhat difficult to care where these people end up.

In Paris, Maureen (Stewart) works as a stylist for a red carpet star (von Waldstatten) while she's waiting for a sign from her recently deceased twin brother, with whom she shares a heart condition. He believed in the afterlife, so the sceptical Maureen tries to tap into his aura, but instead runs into another spirit in his house. As she considers just leaving to join her boyfriend (Olwin) in Oman, a horrible crime brings another layer of stress to her life, which might open her up to a deeper supernatural experience.

Assayas is a fiendishly clever writer and director, sometimes excessively so. And there's a sense here that he's not quite letting the audience in on the joke. But the film has a superb visual sensibility that envelops us in the mystery and emotion. The spectral apparitions are artfully rendered, always in service of pushing Maureen further into her emotional honesty. This makes the paranormal goings-on eerie and unsettling without being scary. By contrast, Maureen's more glamorous life surrounded by insanely expensive fashion items is revealed as rather dull and pointless.

Stewart is terrific, even more transparent and engaging than in her award-winning performance in Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria. She gives the confident Maureen a riveting inner life, holding the audience at arm's length even as she can't help but reveal a complex mixture of insecurity and grief. Where this journey takes her is darkly fascinating, especially as events circle in around her and people push her along an unexpected path. Everyone else in the movie is essentially a one-scene player, but they make their roles indelible.

Setting a haunting amid the French fashion world allows Assayas to make several witty, unexpected juxtapositions, commenting on the quiet lives of people behind-the-scenes as an undercurrent of longing seeps through into every on-screen moment. It's all so smart and artful that the plot's refusal to come into proper focus becomes increasingly frustrating. Each moment provides plenty to chew on, but in the end the refusal to bring it all together leaves us feeling rather lost.