Parents' Guide to Calibre

This psychological thriller doesn't skimp on the violence, trauma, or tension. Packed into the pressure cooker of a remote rural community that's fallen on hard times, Calibre boasts a title that's a neat play on words as well as a couple of breakout performances. With a lesser script and cast, the odd-couple pairing of soon-to-be family man Vaughn and uncooperative finance type Marcus could've been tired and predictable. Instead, writer-director Matt Palmer makes both characters strong-willed but empathetic; tragic as well as resilient. They're interlopers but on familiar ground when it comes to hunting—until they're not.

As Vaughn, Slow Horses star Lowden must carry the weight of most of the plot. A stray bullet fired in the woodlands is the starting gun for a series of impossible moral dilemmas, deftly piled on top of one another. The supporting cast is equally impressive, with Tony Curran cast to type as Logan, the fearsome but even-handed local patriarch who offers them a glimmer of a resolution. One gripe is that the finale doesn't quite match the agonizing slow burn of what precedes it, but this is still a satisfying—and nerve-wracking—indie movie treat.