Complicated Relationships

AFTER EVERYTHING (B) - This fascinating little two-handed character study follows a 20-something couple as they meet-cute, bond over his cancer treatment and then struggle to make things work in the aftermath. Jeremy Allen White and Maika Monroe ("It Follows") are dynamic together as realistic millennials Elliot and Mia, who are feeling their way through uncharted territory.

Hannah Marks and Joey Power offer a debut that neatly captures the cadences of conversation, the beats of friendship and the rhythms of relationships. They are blessed with a deep cast. Gina Gershon plays a mom and Marisa Tomei is an oncologist. Sasha Lane ("American Honey") and Olivia Luccardi are precious as Mia's stoner roommates. DeRon Horton is solid as Elliot's neglected buddy.

The plot has a familiar arc to it, but Marks and Power have something unique to say, and this one doesn't necessarily end up in the safe space it could have retreated to.

A TASTE OF HONEY (1961) (B+) - This early dose of postwar realism from Tony Richardson (coming two years after his breakthrough "Look Back in Anger") follows a mother and daughter's travails through working-class Manchester, England. The kitchen-sink drama tackles some tough issues for its time, including interracial relationships and homosexuality. Rita Tushingham stars as Joe, a plain-Jane teen who learns about male-female relationships from her tart of a mom, Helen (Dora O'Brien, daffy) and instantly falls for a sailor, her first relationship.

The sailor goes off, as expected, and his place is taken by Geoffrey (Murray Melvin), one of cinema's original Gay Best Friends. The odd couple live together in a rundown loft. That's where Jo decamped to after her mother abandoned her in favor of a marriage proposal from a club loser (Robert Stephens, delightfully crude). Richardson -- coming off "Look Back in Anger" and headed toward "Tom Jones" -- luxuriates in the harsh urban landscape in moody black-and-white. Nothing here is easy for the characters, but it's easy to bond with them in this brutal slice of life.