Evil Does Not Exist is highly attuned to the mundane feel of important discussions. Where other filmmakers might amplify the conflicts in a story about a community in conflict with developers, writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi renders the drama as a murmur. A community meeting finds opponents of a proposed glamping resort standing up to methodically explain why the plans are unacceptable. Two coworkers pass the time of a drive discussing their dissatisfaction with dating life and their jobs. A father takes his daughter on an educational walk through the woods. People move in and out of each other’s lives, and Hamaguchi gazes upon it all with patient attention. Hamaguchi looks to the famed work of Jean-Luc Godard for inspiration, which manifests in Evil Does Not Exist as a cold, meticulous visual poetry. The grounded restraint the dominates the film means its all the more striking when a note of ambiguously skewed reality is struck at the end. Even at its most devastating, Hamaguchi’s film finds its deepest feeling by committing to a deliberate nature.