Is actor-turned-director Cody Fern’s debut, Closing Night, intended as a refraction of John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, the 1977 Gena Rowlands vehicle about an actress grappling with a debilitating personal crisis? Seems likely, though that would be just one of several instances of the filmmaker’s aim exceeding his reach. For at least half the movie’s running time, the desired style appears to be the heightened melodrama of Pedro Almodóvar’s tales of turbulent motherhood scarred by traumatic family secrets. But Fern lacks the firm grasp of tone to pull that off, or to smoothly navigate the eventual transition into anguish and sorrow. The…
