With its authentic emotions and good intentions, Herz's drama will still likely inspire empathy in the more sympathetic members of the audience who can see past its filmmaking flaws.

The primary characters and setting of "Barren Trees" are solid, but the overly complicated storytelling falters.

Centering on a vibrant performance by Horta and lively musical moments, this Brazilian biopic from director Hugo Prata celebrates Regina's talent, but it never gives real insight into who she was as a person or the historical period that fueled her work.

When the film, directed by Jason Winn, should accelerate, it turns sluggish, attempting to dot a few too many i's — thematically, emotionally, racing-wise — in telling its only marginally compelling story, with the lackluster Tom-Jeremy dynamic driving too much of the action.

It's all rather low-rent and generic, not particularly distinguished by its overused Bayou setting.

It's a fairly serviceable animated feature, with a few inspired elements, and more than enough gnome puns to go around.

Chilling Kafkaesque encounters give way to portrayals of thuggish cops bordering on caricature. In distractingly blunt ways, the film emphasizes what's already powerfully clear: the monstrousness of Mariam's situation and her courage.

Pyewacket's payoff is a bit too meager given the creepy build-up. But as a psychodrama about a troubled mother and daughter, this movie is gripping from start to finish. Like a lot of the best horror, it's about the hells people conjure for themselves.

The guys occasionally over-reach for irreverence, director and fellow "Workaholics" veteran Kyle Newacheck mainly succeeds in delivering the most defiantly outrageous farce since "Borat."

A few minutes of thriller-like tension early on gives way to a lot of tediously scripted scenes of whisper-acting that rarely breathe life and humanity into what should be a potent turning point story in a religion's history.

As a chance to watch Collette and De Palma at work, soak up some lovely Paris locales and root for a working-class underdog, Madame proves a breezy enough diversion.

Pacific Rim Uprising...is an unquestionably dumber, slighter, less fully realized piece of work than its predecessor. It is also 22 minutes shorter and, though no less committed to an aesthetic of shattered glass and pulverized steel, a rather more endurable experience on the whole.

Director Christian Duguay is much more comfortable handling the sledgehammer superficialities of near-miss action and prankish boyhood than the complicated, turbulent emotions surrounding children imperiled during wartime.

This is very much Foy's movie, and if the role of a woman trapped and surrounded by crazies couldn't feel farther removed from Queen Elizabeth II (or could it?), this superb English actress brings furious conviction to every agonizing moment of Sawyer's journey.

Walter brings a sense of the epic to Kelly's uniquely sensitive story that bravely faces down the good and the evil that exists within us all.

Final Portrait is quietly involving, amusing in a shaggy-dog-story way and impeccably made.

A film that breaks the musical biopic mold in ways that are sometimes frustrating and frequently exhilarating.

As it follows him over a five-year period, into hotel gatherings and danger zones, James Demo's sharp-eyed documentary lays waste to any assumption that inner peace is a requisite for O'Malley's urgent work.

What makes The Redeemed and the Dominant so engaging isn't the hulking specter of steroids; it's the competitors' feats of strength and speed and their powerful personalities to match.

If there is a reason to cherish this often captivating, sometimes irritating, unavoidably perplexing movie, it's that its mere existence seems to defy rational explanation. It is by turns savage and soulful, mangy and refined, possessed of an unmistakable pedigree and yet boldly resistant to categorization. It's a shaggy Frankenmutt of a movie, dressed in artisanal fur and infested by bespoke fleas.

If the film is affecting, it's due to Quaid's dark, committed performance as an incredibly troubled man.

Coming up short on tension and long on talky exposition, Josie emerges as a Southern-fried dramatic thriller that fails to deliver the pulpy goods despite a nicely rooted Dylan McDermott lead performance.

The story is larger than life. Padilha brings a frenetic, authentic style and flair to this depiction and never loses sight of its larger messages and themes.

While the plight of immigrants has been extensively documented on screen, filmmaker Amari, with her skillful fourth feature, juxtaposes Samia's experience against a moody journey of self-discovery accentuated by cinematographer Aurélien Devaux's surreal images (particularly the haunting opening shipwreck sequence) and an unsettling Nicolas Becker score.

The film rarely feels static or stagy. It's a fine and memorable effort.

The outlook of The Happys is reflected in its title — even when things are dark, Tracy maintains her sunny outlook. It might be a bit too spit-varnished shiny, but her happiness is hard-won.

Allure is powered by Wood's intense charisma. Laura deploys her magnetic gaze as a weapon, though the destruction she wreaks is most often directed at herself. The character's situation is always untenable, and as it collides with inevitability, the co-writer-director Sanchez brothers lose the tight grip of control they've maintained over the story.

For a movie designed to honor the unexpected depths of a cultural hallmark, Ramen Heads does achieve, to borrow the ultimate standard of ramen quality, enough satisfying slurpability.