In the recently released indie comedy “My Old Ass,” the heroine has a little brother who has a pop culture crush on the actress Saoirse Ronan, such that his bedrooms walls are covered with her photos in a manner usually reserved for boy bands.

Ronan is at her searching, sensational best in "The Outrun" in the change-of-pace role of Rona, a biologist living in London with her boyfriend Daynin (the excellent Paapa Essiedu), who grows increasingly impatient with the destructive hardcore party girl Rona has become.

The crashing of waves, the somber recrimination of chilly charcoal clouds: for the young woman at the center of this story, Rona—played, in a marvelously nuanced performance by Saoirse Ronan —these are both markers of time and reminders that sometimes it’s necessary to temporarily drop out of time,