“People these days don’t want carousels, they want roller coasters that turn you upside down and make you puke.” At some point in Demolition, an old man says this, the cri de coeur of the movie. Romance being replaced by fear, the last thing that makes people who have no past feel alive.

That’s what Demolition itself has to deal with — reaching people is becoming unusually hard. They’re always looking elsewhere; they’re yearning and their minds are strangely dissociated. So the movie puts to work every obvious metaphor it can. Indie movies are often too earnest, but this one has a way of stating the blunt facts of screwed-up lives that might give people a chance to become aware of themselves, of their brokenness, and of the direction they need to consider. It’s directed by M. Jean-Marc Vallee, an interesting Canadian director who has a chance at a Hollywood career and whom I recommend to the curious among you. Vallee was nominated for Dallas Buyers Club and directed the classy movie The Young Victoria. This time, however, he wants to tell you something about life not making sense.