Ratings based on four-star system.
‘Antichrist’
1 1/2 stars
To say that this film is shocking would suggest that it’s effective. Certainly shocking us is Lars von Trier’s point — or we can assume it is. Doing so at least gives us something to hold onto when most of the movie seems so maddeningly pointless.

The Danish writer-director has said this domestic thriller was the result of working through a bout of depression, a script he wrote as a therapeutic exercise. Watching “Antichrist,” though, that’s hard to believe; so much of it seems so gratuitous, it’s difficult to imagine it would be helpful to anybody, even its creator. Among its imagery: a little boy falling from an open window to his death; graphic, sadistic sex; bloodied woodland creatures; and genital mutilation. And as it builds to its violent crescendo, it only becomes more hilariously absurd.

As for the story itself, well, it’s pretty dull for the most part. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as a married couple known only as “He” and “She,” pretentiously. Following the death of their young son in a freak accident — which they couldn’t prevent because they were too busy having artfully photographed bathroom sex — they retreat to their cabin in the woods to work through their guilt and grief. This consists of long, achingly empty stretches punctuated by moments of shrill screaming and brute violence.

‘Amelia’
2 stars
Considering the risks Amelia Earhart took, losing her life in the call of aviation, Hilary Swank and director Mira Nair don’t put much on the line in their film biography of the pioneering flyer. This is a biopic on autopilot, providing the facts but not the passions of Earhart’s achievements, her marriage to her promoter (Richard Gere) and her fling with a fellow pilot (Ewan McGregor). Swank’s Earhart repeatedly tells people how she has to fly or die. Yet when she’s in the air, she’s as stiff and closed-off as a passenger stuck in a middle coach seat on a trans-Atlantic flight.

As Earhart, Swank exposes what could be her prime limitation: She doesn’t have much range. Swank can tear up the screen in raw street drama such as “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby,” for which she earned Academy Awards. She’s miserably out of her skin as the stately Earhart, though — drab, distant, utterly uninvolving. In almost every regard, “Amelia” veers off course.

‘Astro Boy’
2 stars
A shiny hodgepodge of “Pinocchio,” “WALL-E,” “Oliver Twist,” “Gladiator” and “Superman,” with some obvious visual touches taken from “The Iron Giant.” As its own entity, though, it’s pretty forgettable. Director David Bowers (“Flushed Away”), who co-wrote the script with Timothy Hyde Harris (“Kindergarten Cop,” “Space Jam”), gets some help from a lively voice cast that includes Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy and Nathan Lane, and the Art Deco look of the film’s architecture has a classic appeal. But it almost feels like there are too many movies competing simultaneously in what is essentially a pretty standard tale of good versus evil. The jokes aren’t all that funny and the father-son relationship between Astro Boy (Highmore) and brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma (a typically lethargic and curiously cast Nicolas Cage) isn’t all that heart-tugging. There’s a lot going on, but none of it ever really grabs you.

Based on a Japanese comic book from Osamu Tezuka that began in 1951, “Astro Boy” traces the origin of a young superhero. He began life as a regular kid named Toby, but after dying in a freak lab accident, his father brings him back to life as a robot containing Toby’s personality and memories (as well as some tricky gadgets and powers that are never explained). Once Dr. Tenma realizes this robot version of his child is inferior and ends him away, Toby flees the floating, gleaming Metro City and lands back on the now-trashed Earth below, where he becomes known as Astro Boy.

‘Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant’
1 1/2 stars
It’s getting downright batty trying to keep all these vampires straight. The latest entry to the overcrowded trend is “Cirque du Freak,” adapted from a 12-book series, and with quixotic dreams of a movie franchise of its own.
The film characterizes itself from other vampire fare in its outlandishness. Here, vampire are no longer enough; we now get a freak show complete with a bearded Salma Hayek, a super-tall Ken Watanabe and a vampire John C. Reilly. Two high school kids (Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson) stumble upon the group. With remarkably little thought, they cast their lot as vampires, each taking different sides in the war between vampires (who merely sedate their prey) and vampaneze (who kill). Reilly (a fine actor out of place here) takes being a vampire seriously, but his best bits are his amusing scoffing at conventional vampire traits. He pronounces, “Vampires don’t need cell phones!” Director Paul Weitz (“In Good Company,” ‘’About a Boy”) should have known that’s what this should have been: an out-an-out comedy. Instead, “Cirque du Freak” might be the single most overstuffed film of the year: a high school film crossed with a vampire film crossed with a mutant film crossed with Willem Dafoe cameos.

‘Law Abiding Citizen’
1 star
The real mystery here isn’t how Gerard Butler’s character manages to wreak explosive, bloody havoc on Philadelphia while confined behind the walls of his jail cell. What’s truly baffling is how the star of the hugely successful “300” has managed to make yet another questionable movie choice. This time, Butler serves as a producer and stars as Clyde Shelton, whose wife and young daughter were murdered during a home invasion. Ten years later, he’s out for revenge — not just against the killer who went free after testifying against his accomplice, but against the entire judicial system. His ultimate target is Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx, looking bored), the slick prosecutor who cut that deal a decade ago to maintain his high conviction rate. But before going after Nick, he takes out everyone around him in ridiculously elaborate fashion. Clyde’s impossible omniscience and his sadistically convoluted game-playing feel like a rip-off of the “Saw” franchise. F. Gary Gray (“The Italian Job”) dully directs Kurt Wimmer’s over-the-top script with a misty, bleached-out aesthetic that only makes the movie feel like more of a drag.

‘New York, I Love You’
2 stars
The title is “New York, I Love You,” and it’s a collection of shorts intended as one big love letter to the city and all the romance it has to offer. The result is a curiously bland hodgepodge — not terribly evocative of such a famous place, and not all that inspiring in the connections it depicts. Following 2007’s “Paris Je T’Aime,” this is the second in a planned series of “Cities of Love” films. Each features a group of eclectic directors and well-known actors coming together to concoct brief clips. Inherently with such a structure, you’re going to have hits and misses. Not all the segments are going to work for every viewer. But whereas “Paris Je T’Aime” had a healthy number of hits, “New York, I Love You” is the unfortunate opposite.

The challenge presented to filmmakers was intriguing, too: Each of them had two days to shoot, then a week to edit. Each short had to take place in an identifiable New York neighborhood. And each had to involve some kind of love encounter. Nearly everything in “New York, I Love You” has a dark, gritty sameness that feels smothering. Aside from references to Central Park and the Dakota building and restaurants like Balthazar and Pastis, “New York, I Love You” could take place in any bustling, densely populated metropolis.

‘Couples Retreat’
1 1/2 stars
This is what life might have been like if the guys from “Swingers” had grown up, moved to the suburbs and turned into lame, sitcommy cliches. Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn team up again, on screen and on the script (along with Dana Fox), for this broad comedy about four couples who go on a tropical vacation together. In theory, they’re all there to support their friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) as they try to save their marriage through the couples’ counseling the resort offers. Little do they know they’ll get sucked into agonizing therapy sessions that reveal their own rifts. Under the direction of Peter Billingsley, “Couples Retreat” veers back and forth in a jarring way between crude sexual humor and supposedly poignant moments. The couples endure forced nudity and a wildly erotic yoga class; Favreau’s character, Joey, and his wife Lucy (Kristin Davis) each try to get it on with their respective massage therapists. But they also must bare their souls. Each of these characters is exactly the same person the whole way through, until one night when they all magically experience an epiphany that makes them more communicative, patient and loving. A few funny lines emerge here and there, but “Couples Retreat” mostly feels repetitive and overlong at nearly two hours.

‘Where the Wild Things Are’
3 stars
The book is just 339 words long, but in turning it into a feature-length movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact. What keeps the film from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers. The beloved and award-winning children’s book, which Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated 45 years ago, still holds up beautifully today because it shows keen insight into the conflicted nature of children. With its warm lighting and detailed production design, “Where the Wild Things Are” remains lovingly faithful to the look and spirit of the book but functions assuredly as its own entity. Jonze also gets the feelings of fear and insecurity that the wild things of “Wild Things” represent, and he’s taken the bold step of showing the creatures not through animation but rather by using actual people in giant, furry costumes. And because talented character actors like James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara and Paul Dano had the benefit of voicing their roles on the same stage at the same time, their interplay feels more organic. At their center is Max, played by 12-year-old Max Records, a lonely, misunderstood kid who runs off to the magical land where the wild things are and becomes their king.

‘An Education’
Rated PG-13
4 stars
Sixteen-year-old Jenny learns the ways of the world in this coming-of-age drama, but there’s a revelation in store for us, as well. We get the pleasure of meeting an exciting young actress who surely deserves to become a star. Carey Mulligan is radiant as a suburban teenager in 1961 London who’s curious and clever beyond her years but still rather innocent and impressionable. Although she’s a diligent student and dutiful daughter, she sits alone in her bedroom at night longing to be grown-up enough to live in Paris on her own, basking in the culture. Mulligan maintains a beautifully believable balance of these contrasting forces, even as Jenny gets drawn from the sedate and boring life she knows into a glamorous new one. Her guide is David (Peter Sarsgaard doing a solid British accent), a thirtysomething man with whom she experiences an immediate connection. He whisks her away in his flashy sports car to nights filled with concerts and late-night suppers and, eventually, weekend trips out of town. Even her protective parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour), who are initially skeptical of David’s intentions because of the age difference, fall for his urbane charms. Director Lone Scherfig and writer Nick Hornby find just the right touch here with some tricky material, based on the memoir by Lynn Barber. The challenge is: how to make David, and this ill-advised relationship, seem thrilling rather than creepy? Through Jenny’s eyes, we get caught up in the excitement, too, but as bystanders we know it can’t last — even before David’s dark side starts to surface — and that’s what gives “An Education” an inescapable tension.
‘Good Hair’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
What’s so funny about so many black women wanting “white” hair? Plenty, it turns out, in Chris Rock’s surprisingly insightful documentary. The well-known history of black people straightening their natural curls is more tragedy than comedy, rooted in the bygone belief that all things European were better than anything African. But Rock sheds new light on this old story through a poignant mix of interviews, investigation and his trademark satire. More than a dozen famous and beautiful black women sit for Rock’s camera, ranging from the sage Maya Angelou to video vixen Melyssa Ford to an interior designer with a skin disease that has left her proudly bald. Their testimony illuminates today’s reality: Black women who straighten their hair are not ashamed of their heritage — like women the world over, they just want to work with what they have. There are many scenes in beauty and barber shops across the country, where the various meanings, rules and ramifications of black hairstyles are discussed. But the best revelations come when Rock examines the sodium hydroxide relaxer that turns nappy heads silky, and the origins of the shorn human hair that is “weaved” into shorter tresses to create the illusion of length and fullness. Rock is the perfect host. His ad-libbed quips and silly-serious questions put interview subjects and viewers at ease with this sometimes painful reality, keeping them laughing instead of crying.
‘The Invention of Lying’
Rated PG-13
1 1/2 stars
It would be such a joy to bend the truth and say that “The Invention of Lying” lives up to the potential of its inspired premise. The conceit — that an alternate universe exists where everyone tells the truth all the time — sets up an uproarious beginning, but then the movie plummets precipitously. It’s not just the high-concept gag wears thin, which it does. The bigger problem is that Ricky Gervais, in his directorial debut (alongside co-director and co-writer Matthew Robinson), zig-zags awkwardly between dark humor and heavy melodrama. One character is suicidal and another is on the verge of dying, both of which are played uncomfortably for laughs. It certainly doesn’t help that “The Invention of Lying” is lighted so hideously, everyone looks like death — even Rob Lowe and Tina Fey. This is especially obvious given Gervais’ fondness for cutting back and forth between close-ups his actors, which he does with distracting frequency. On camera himself, he’s likable enough as Mark Bellison, a wisecracking sad sack who discovers the unheard-of notion of lying one day and explores its many benefits. But sharing scenes with him are Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and Jason Bateman, who go to waste in barely-there cameos. Comedians like Fey, Jeffrey Tambor and Louis C.K. get a bit more time on screen but their characters are flatly one-note. Gervais deserves credit for approaching the idea that God and heaven are part of an elaborate lie meant to assuage the masses — a bold move for a big-studio comedy with lots of stars — but then backs off, as if he and Robinson hadn’t thought it through all the way.
‘More Than a Game’
Rated PG
2 stars
An inspiring story that works very hard to remind you it’s an inspiring story at every opportunity. “Hoosiers” looks subtle by comparison — and this is a documentary. “More Than a Game” traces the origins of LeBron James before he was an NBA superstar, when he and his high school teammates rose from being scrappy Akron, Ohio, kids to three-time state basketball champions. With his first film, director and co-writer Kristopher Belman combines old home videos and TV news footage with fresh interviews with James, his buddies and their coach, Dru Joyce II. Feel-good speeches and proclamations abound, frequently accompanied by the swell of uplifting music. (“Our kids just had a never-say-die attitude,” recalls the coach, speaking in one of many sports cliches, even though the tears in his eyes at the memories seem genuine.) Too often, Belman also states the obvious; we could have figured out for ourselves, for example, that Joyce served as a father figure to James, who was raised in the projects by a single mother who gave birth to him at 16. The fact that James’ talent and discipline allowed him not only to overcome his childhood hardships but thrive on a stratospheric scale is a compelling story in itself — and to his credit, he’s not the sole focus of the film, even though he’s an executive producer. “More Than a Game” also takes plenty of time to let us get to know his teammates, their back stories, and how they found a way to work together and win.
‘A Serious Man’
Rated R
3 1/2 stars
It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what a Coen brothers movie is. That’s part of the allure of them. As writers and directors, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen don’t just pump out the same movie over and over, as so many filmmakers do. From the comic antics of “Raising Arizona” to the noir of “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” the goofballs of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” to the outlaws of “No Country for Old Men,” they’re all strikingly different. They surprise us. But there are some thematic threads that frequently run though them, which get tangled together here in the Coens’ most personal film yet. Basically the point is that the universe is random, it gives you insurmountable challenges, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The concepts of justice and karma are irrelevant: Things happen to people whether their behavior is good or bad, and you can question them all you like, but good luck finding any answers. You could invoke “The Big Lebowski” in trying to explain this philosophy: They’re nihilists. But the Coens are clearly having a little fun in making life so difficult for the nebbishy Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor raising his family in a predominately Jewish suburb of Minneapolis in 1967. Larry tries to do the right thing at home and at work — tries to be a serious man — but out of nowhere one day, the troubles start piling up until they reach an absurd level. Watching and wondering how and when he’ll snap provides laughs, but also a mounting sense of unease, and it should provoke lengthy debate about the nature of faith.
‘Whip It’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
Drew Barrymore has forged a persona as both an actress and producer with movies that exude a playful sense of girl power, so it only makes sense that her first feature as a director would share that same sort of vibe. What is surprising, though, is Barrymore’s ability to find just the right tone all the time, which would be a difficult feat for any first-time filmmaker to achieve — even one who’s had the benefit of spending her entire life on movie sets. “Whip It” is funny without trying too hard to be wacky, sweet without being overly sentimental. It has an appealing sort of low-budget, ‘70s-style kitsch. And after a recent string of femalecentric films including “All About Steve” and “The Ugly Truth” that wallow in the worst kinds of stereotypes, it is such a relief to see women depicted as strong, smart, cool individuals. It’s also a joy to see Ellen Page play a character other than the impossibly clever smart-alecks she’s become known for in movies like “Juno” and “Hard Candy.” Here, Page stars as Bliss Cavendar, a misfit growing up in the nowhere town of Bodeen, Texas, and working as a waitress at the local barbecue joint. Bliss is reluctantly following in the footsteps of her beauty-queen mother (Marcia Gay Harden), but on a visit to the big city of Austin, she sees a flier for the local roller derby league and is immediately intrigued. Not only does she secretly try out, she makes it and becomes the league’s petite, speedy star. Kristen Wiig, Alia Shawkat, Juliette Lewis, stuntwoman Zoe Bell and Barrymore herself are among the solid supporting cast.
‘Zombieland’
Rated R
3 stars
You’d be justified in thinking you’ve visited “Zombieland” before. There’s been no shortage of zombies at the movies in recent years, just as there’s been no shortage of vampires. And within that genre, a crop of zombie comedies has arisen, from “Shaun of the Dead” to “Zombie Strippers” to “Dead Snow.” Like “Shaun” before it, though, “Zombieland” mostly finds that tricky balance of the laugh-out-loud funny and the make-you-jump scary, of deadpan laughs and intense energy. It’s a total blast even if the story is a bit thin, and it does run out of steam toward the end, but thankfully our trip to “Zombieland” is appropriately quick. First-time director Ruben Fleischer grabs you from the get-go with stylized visuals, and the script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick is hilariously bizarre while still remaining rooted in contemporary reality. Jesse Eisenberg stars as an uber-nerdy college student who’s managed to survive a viral zombie outbreak by adhering to a strict series of rules, which are inspired by his innate fear of everything. While trying to get home to Ohio to see what’s become of his parents, he runs into a fellow survivor (Woody Harrelson) who’s his brash, butt-kicking opposite. They come to regard each other by their destinations — Columbus and Tallahassee — rather than their real names to avoid forging a personal relationship, should potential zombiedom force either of them to take drastic action against the other. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin co-star as Wichita and Little Rock, sisters who join them in hopes of staying alive.
‘Brief Interviews With Hideous Men’
Not rated
1 1/2 stars
The “brief” part is one of the biggest problems here. In adapting the late David Foster Wallace’s book of the same name, writer-director John Krasinski spends so little time with each of the male “subjects” being interviewed about their fears and fantasies, it’s hard to connect with any of them or feel intrigued or moved by their stories. They mainly come off as neurotic, obnoxious or both. And the actors playing them are so self-consciously performing, their soliloquies feel stagey and false. By contrast, the woman questioning them for her doctoral thesis in anthropology, the reserved Sara (Julianne Nicholson), exhibits so little personality, she’s a cipher. Krasinski makes his debut behind the camera here, but the star of TV’s “The Office” is actually more effective in front of it. He appears in one of the stronger sequences in this scattershot production as Ryan (or “Subject No. 20,” as he’s known scientifically), the man who’s come in and out of Sara’s life and inspired her study. But then he undermines his own performance with copious jump cuts, a distracting and gimmicky device he uses far too frequently. Krasinski intersperses the interviews with dramatic segments showing Sara interacting with her various subjects, but neither approach provides much insight into the male psyche. Too often, we get cliches: Men view women as objects, they have commitment issues, they don’t understand what women want. Timothy Hutton, Dominic Cooper, Bobby Cannavale and Josh Charles are among the ensemble cast.
— Associated Press