Film "The Night Clerk" - Autistic lead character

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The theme of loneliness that informs much of Michael Cristofer’s film and stage work is very much in evidence in “The Night Clerk,” a character-driven crime thriller that favors psychological probing over compelling intrigue.

Tye Sheridan’s Bart Bromley is the titular individual in question — a young man decisively on the autism spectrum who has hidden spy cams in the rooms of the hotel where he works late shifts.

Bart’s voyeurism — shades of “Psycho’s” Norman Bates — actually appears driven by a desire to study social cues from the interactions of the guests rather than sexual gratification.

Things get further complicated when he witnesses a murder in one of the rooms, and the subsequent discovery of the recording devices arouses the suspicions of a methodical detective (John Leguizamo), who schools himself in Asperger’s syndrome over the course of his investigation.

Sheridan gives a rooted if troublingly robotic performance (one that could court controversy among activists). But those around him — especially “Knives Out” sensation Ana de Armas as a potential romantic interest with questionable motives and Helen Hunt as Bart’s fiercely protective mother — provide the necessary dramatic contrast.