Had your fill of punishing investigations into toxic masculinity? Then the thoughtful questioning, sensitivity, low-key humor and refreshing candor of Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex might be your antidote. Turning the male character study on its head with a gentle subversiveness that recalls what The Worst Person in the World did with romantic comedy, this superbly acted drama’s refusal to serve up tidy epiphanies might leave you wanting more. But the inchoate nature of the central characters’ self-reflection is partly the point in a smart movie with a lot on its mind.

The first entry in a trilogy by the writer-director called Sex Dreams Love, it centers on two friends — both of them married and ostensibly heterosexual — who work for the same chimney-sweeping company. That profession might more readily conjure associations with Mary Poppins, but these guys are no jaunty jacks-of-all-trades. They are methodical professionals providing a specialized service in contemporary Oslo,...