CAPSULES from director Luke Momo,  and written by Momo and Davis Browne has a compelling concept. Den (Caroline Potter Shriver), Jasper (Marcus Fahey), Maya (Kate Pittard), and Ryan (Davis Browne) are all college students cramming for a big final. When the four of them all decide to take a mysterious pill they pinched from a stranger the consequences are dire. If they don’t keep taking this mystery pill they face certain death. A commentary on big pharma and the capricious use of narcotics, CAPSULES really tries to explore some deep stuff. Sadly it falls short.

As mentioned, Jasper and Ryan happen upon an old man who has collapsed in a parking lot. In helping him up and reviving him, an unmarked bottle of pills tumbles from the man’s coat. The two college students nab the bottle and head to their study session.  The Adderall and Kush are flowing freely as the four students study. When all of the substances are gone, Ryan dares the group to try the unmarked pills that they stole from the old man. Here is where the audience will be sharply divided. There will be the group that thinks a quartet of college students would be too smart to munch on random pills. Then there will be the people that gesture to the drugs they had been doing prior and say, “Why not?” As it turns out, this pill demands regular doses. Otherwise excruciating death follows. The four students pick this up immediately, surprisingly, and begin to search for a solution.

This critic had a hard time believing that as careless as these characters were, they would then decide to ingest some mystery pills. But, if you go with it, there are some fascinating ideas to explore. The bummer is that the film is hampered by a number of things that are ambiguous in cause. Much like the mystery ingredients in the titular capsule, we wonder if this was a movie held from greatness due to budget or skill. Personally, I would argue the former. What is here is quite good, even provocative. What doesn’t work mostly stems from a reduction of runtime.

The four leads here are good enough to hold an ensemble together but it’s Pittard’s Maya that stood out for me. Her opening scene with Ryan is just a showcase of her talent, setting us up to like this abrasive character. The script that Momo and Browne put together has a lot to say with a sort of It Follows vibe pointing the finger directly at dependency. Yet it ultimately fails to drive the point home and is afraid to go much further than letting the characters suffer just enough. Still, Momo is a promising talent that has a sharp eye for production, talent, and execution. While it doesn’t fully succeed it what it is trying to do, CAPSULES  entertains enough to make it worth exploring.