Sleight

A young Los Angeles magician (Jacob Latimore) helps support himself and his kid sister (Storm Reid) by performing tricks and passing the hat on street corners, and by selling cocaine on the side; when he gets in over his head and incurs the wrath of his mad-dog boss (Dulé Hill), he has to draw on his sleight of hand to try to work his way free. Sluggish direction by J.D. Dillard and a thin script (by him and Alex Theurer) that goes from unlikely to implausible to preposterous are partially offset by sincere performances all around—especially by Hill as a smiling snake in the grass. Seychelle Gabriel as a romantic match for Latimore, Sasheer Zamata as a friendly neighbor and Carmen Esposito as a bar owner all do decent work in underwritten characters that don’t seem all that essential to the action. J.L.