New releases
★★ Bel Ami “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson stars in a period piece about the rise of a rake in 1880s Paris. The actor’s too young and callow for the role and the movie doesn’t capture the sting of the Guy de Maupassant novel, but it’s a watchable melodrama with good performances by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristin Scott Thomas. (102 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★½ Beyond the Black Rainbow In his debut feature, writer-director Panos Cosmatos shows a knack for mood and tone. It’s 1983, and the setting is a futuristic institution that seems to be medical, but feels penal. The movie has a doomy, dreamy, druggy, draggy feel that’s impressively sustained — until it becomes oppressive, then pointless, then laughable. (109 min., R) (Mark Feeney)
★★ Hysteria A comedy-drama about the invention of the vibrator in 1880s London. Somewhere in here is an illuminating farce about a repressed society wracked by urges it doesn’t dare name. So why does director Tanya Wexler insist on stamping it out with moralizing? Stick with playwright Sara Ruhl’s “In the Next Room.” Starring Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (100 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★★½ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted There’s some bona fide big-top wonder in this team-up between ragtag European circus critters (notably Bryan Cranston and Martin Short) and our Central Park Zoo expat heroes (Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith). Colorful 3-D performance sequences are sufficiently dazzling that you may forgive an act wasted on convoluted setup, and those relentless circus-afro ads. (93 min., PG) (Tom Russo)
★★★ Nobody Else But You What if Marilyn Monroe had never made it out of the sticks? That oddly inspired notion is explored in a playful French meta-mystery that’s occasionally too proud of its own cleverness. Jean-Paul Rouve plays a thriller writer investigating the death of a small-town sex goddess (Sophie Quinton). In French, with English subtitles. (103 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)
★ Peace, Love & Misunderstanding Catherine Keener (who should know better) is an uptight Manhattan lawyer and Jane Fonda her hippie-dippy Woodstock mother in this limp culture-clash comedy with a heart of patchouli. Shallowly written and unevenly directed (by Bruce Beresford), it’s crystals and smugness all the way. With Elizabeth Olsen and Chace Crawford (96 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★★ Prometheus Ridley Scott’s return to the “Alien” franchise is impeccably produced but increasingly scattered. It’s officially a prequel but it feels like a remake: We’ve been here before, with lesser technology but more purpose. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, and Charlize Theron, all quite good. (119 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★★½ We Still Live Here Can a people without words truly be a people? That unanswerable question no longer applies to the Wampanoag, thanks to one of its members, Jessie Littledoe Baird. Anne Makepeace’s modest documentary focuses on Baird’s immodest achievement. She single-handedly resuscitated the tribe’s spoken language, which for many decades had survived only in written form. (56 min., unrated) (Mark Feeney)
Previously released
★★½ Bernie Jack Black dials back the boorishness to play Bernie Tiede, a real-life Texas funeral director and community pillar who in 1996 shot his aged companion (Shirley MacLaine) in the back. Richard Linklater directs it as a loopy black comedy with generous input from local “witnesses” — the movie’s bouncy, amusing, and wholly lacking in a point. With Matthew McConaughey. (104 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)
★★★ Dark Shadows This big-screen revamp of the much-loved (if ridiculous) late-’60s Gothic soap opera recaptures the show’s doomy vibe with blissful comic precision. Johnny Depp is great fun as Barnabas Collins, an 18th-century vampire having trouble adjusting to the polyester 1970s. With Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green. (113 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)
★★½ The Dictator The despot here is a flamboyantly bearded North African goofball (Sacha Baron Cohen) who winds up working in a Brooklyn food co-op. That’s the best idea in the movie, which lacks the cultural tension in “Borat” and “Bruno,” satires that Cohen and director Larry Charles previously made together. (88 min., R) (Wesley Morris)
★★★ First Position Another kiddie-competition documentary, but more gripping than usual because the competitors — six young ballet dancers vying for awards and contracts in the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix — are so driven and so talented. (90 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)
★★½ Headhunters A sleek Norwegian crime thriller about an Oslo executive-by-day/art thief-by-night (Aksel Hennie) who gets in over his head. Based on a novel by the best-selling Norwegian author Jo Nesbo. Costarring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnove Macody Lund. In Norwegian, with English subtitles. (100 min., R) (Ty Burr)
★ HIGH School When over-achiever Henry and pothead Breaux scheme to avoid expulsion for smoking pot by getting their whole school stoned, the few laughs come mostly from bit players: middle-aged teachers and elderly school board members spouting druggy profanities or lurid fantasies. (93 min., R) (Jeremy C. Fox)
★★ The Intouchables France’s second biggest film hit tells the story of a ritzy white quadriplegic (Francois Cluzet) who hires a Senegalese-born thug (Omar Sy) to take care of him. All the white people do in this movie is flatter and spoil and humor the caretaker. He spouts his crass, egotistical crap, and all anyone does is laugh. America has a racial guilt problem. France’s might be more insidious. In French, with subtitles. (113 min., R) (Wesley Morris)
★★★ Marvel’s The Avengers If you like Joss Whedon’s superhero extravaganza (really, there’s almost nothing to dislike; it’s as close as a movie can come to the fantastical reality of a good comic book), stick around for the closing credits. With Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, and Samuel L. Jackson. (148 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)
★★★★ Moonrise Kingdom When two 12-year-olds (Kara Heyward, Jared Gilman) plot a secret getaway to a remote part of their fictitious New England island, the adults in their lives come looking for them. Wes Anderson directed and co-wrote the movie with Roman Coppola, and it feels utterly real, vividly dreamt, and totally remembered. With Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and Tilda Swinton. (94 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)
★★★★ Polisse An electrifying epic emotional thriller about an endangered child-protection unit in the Paris police department and the tight, tense bond among the detectives. In French, with English subtitles. (127 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)
★★½ Snow White and the Huntsman Entertainingly schizophrenic, this reengineering of the classic fairy tale feels like it was made from pieces of every fantasy-action movie ever made. It barely holds together but there are daft pleasures, from Charlize Theron’s rampant overacting as the evil queen to Kristen Stewart’s surprising underplaying as Snow. (116 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)
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