Tilda Swinton doesn’t merely act the title role in Erick Zonca’s Julia—she devours it, spits it back up, dances giddily upon it, twirls it in the air. The key to Swinton’s performance (and to the movie) is that she’s playing an actress—not a professional one, but a wily, desperate woman under the influence who adapts herself to what each new situation calls for, sometimes well, sometimes badly, but always with every fiber of her being. Her faces are many, including the eerie black death mask she wears when she agrees to help her unstable Mexican neighbor (the superb Kate del Castillo) kidnap her young son from the clutches of his wealthy grandfather. It’s a crackpot scheme made more so by Julia’s half-cocked attempt to secure herself a bigger share of the ransom money, and by the time the movie winds its way from Los Angeles to Tijuana, one kidnapping gives way to another with no end in sight. Directing his first theatrical feature in the decade since The Dreamlife of Angels, Zonca tips his hat to the entire John Cassavetes oeuvre while crafting a messy, nervy and frequently exhilarating thriller that operates on instinct rather than plot and features richly pulpy dialogue by Zonca and coscreenwriter Aude Py. – Scott Foundas, the Village Voice (142 min, Magnolia Pictures)

Showtimes 1:05, 4:05, 7:05 and 9:55.

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Written by Aude Py, Erick Zonca. Photographed by Yorick Le Saux. With Tilda Swinton, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo.