“The Savages”

One of the best movies of the year so far, “The Savages” is writer-director Tamara Jenkins’ second feature after “Slums of Beverly Hills,” which came out a decade ago. This time, Jenkins has made what she calls a coming-of-middle-age story. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play siblings who are thrust into caring for the father (Philip Bosco) who never cared for them after he is diagnosed with dementia, forcing them to grow up well past the point at which they’ve started to age. For a tender, uncommonly perceptive look at sibling relationships and a profound meditation on mortality and the meaning we draw from experience, “The Savages” is singularly funny and seriously moving.