LANGUAGE LESSONS (B+) - Mark Duplass seems to never wear out his welcome. Here he teams with Natalie Morales (they write, she directs) to tell a touching tale of an improbable friendship that develops between two people over an internet connection. With an improv vibe, they muddle along through a series of Spanish lessons that eventually take a backseat to an emotional entanglement.
Duplass' Adam has been gifted 100 weekly lessons by his husband, and so he plies his rusty Spanish with bespectacled Carino, who lives in Costa Rica. A tragedy strikes early on, and the two begin to form an unlikely and shaky bond via long distance. Their interactions unfold completely on computer screens and video phone messages; the gimmick is handled so deftly that you quickly get used to the Zoom-style construction of each frame.
Duplass is scruffy throughout as he uses Carino as a de facto therapist at times, and when she goes through her own rough patch, he smothers her as an older-brother figure. There is a quick, sharp self-reference to White Savior Complex -- Adam fell into wealth and is guilty about that -- and Morales digs deep to find her own character who can match the emotional layers revealed by Duplass's engaging creation.
You might see the ending coming a mile away, but that doesn't mean it still won't hit you in a tender spot. These are two actors who threw their hearts into a passion project. They have a lot of fun (in Adam's broken Spanish (often reflected in the subtitles), he confuses the words for being embarrassed and being pregnant), and they spill their guts here and there. In the end, this feels like two real people (either Morales and Duplass, or Carino and Adam) throwing caution to the wind and taking a chance on each other.
FLORA AND ULYSSES (B) - Instead of boy-meets-girl, this is girl-meets-squirrel, in a very Disney story that zips along on the charm of its cast. Upfront is tween Flora (a powerhouse Matilda Lawler), who believes in super-heroes and lucks into a meet-cute with a newly super-charged squirrel named Ulysses, who boasts several impressive powers, not the least of which is the ability to type complete (if clunky) sentences.
Flora's parents are separated -- the mom (a world-weary Alyson Hannigan) is a romance novelist and the dad (a wry Ben Schwarz) is a frustrated action-comics author, and they spend most of the movie at arm's length. Meantime Flora's big adventure involves sparing Ulysses from the clutches of the town's animal-control officer (Danny Pudi).
Much of this one has a lightweight evanescence that doesn't stick to the brain for long, but little Lawler's magnetism helps hurtle this forward. She and a fabulously rendered CGI Ulysses are cute and clever and fun to watch. The kid also is aided by a solid working-class cast that includes Bobby Moynihan as a comic-book store proprietor, Kate Micucci as a waitress at the restaurant where Ulysses first flips out and wreaks havoc, Anna Deavere Smith as the family's neighbor, and a CGI cat from hell that bedevils the animal-control officer.
Director Lena Kahn gets in and out in 95 minutes. The plot is propelled by Ulysses' inventive super-hero exploits and one girl's relentless pluck. If you don't at least smile at this, you might want to readjust your cynicism levels.
BONUS TRACKS
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