When Tao Okamoto first read the script for Ryusuke Hamaguchi ’s All of a Sudden , one scene told her above all others that this was hers for the taking. The sequence saw her character, a well-regarded playwright named Mari, explaining the systemic failures of modern capitalism. The monologue is long and complex, propelled by interconnecting arguments that, on the surface, might resemble an academic paper; it’s complete with her drawing whiteboard graphics to illustrate and summarize her points.

“This is something that I’d been thinking about over the years — and I got to lecture people on it in the movie, it’s amazing,” Okamoto says. “I think it will help a lot of people to connect the dots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any movie explain and verbalize the system of capitalism and where we are like this.”

Of course, All of a Sudden is not an academic paper. Hamaguchi’s film feels about as far from that as you can get, in fact, playing as a richly textured and emotionally vast tapestry of human connection.…