Sports documentaries tend to follow a formula, mostly having to do with either the athlete in question’s rise to or fall from glory. Archival footage is interspersed with talking heads, declaiming the subject as the fastest/toughest/greatest/baddest of all time.

There are exceptions, to be sure. This year, to name one, James Toback’s “Tyson” transformed the formula by focusing on a single voice: Tyson’s.

Kristopher Belman’s “More Than a Game” goes in the opposite direction but works its own changes on the form. (More…)

“Whip It” is a movie for girls – and not particularly discriminating girls, at that.

A clichéd underdog film about a talented rookie whose ability takes her to the top, this is the PG-13 version of the kind of movie that Hollywood regularly churns out for boys. Because it incorporates a very mild grrl-power theme, it could become something of a phenomenon – especially because it stars the aggressively adorable Ellen Page and was directed by unbearably adorable Drew Barrymore (who can’t resist playing a featured role as just one of the gals).

Which makes it excruciatingly adorable – indeed, it’s right off the adorability charts. Or so it seems to think. (More…)

“Man know thyself! All wisdom centers there!”

                                                                        – Edward Young

Yeah, right. Life is so weird, so unpredictable – and other clichés to that effect – that self-knowledge sometimes just doesn’t cut it. No wonder we seek answers in religion, philosophy or whatever else crosses our paths that looks like it will do the trick.

But as Joel and Ethan Coen posit in their fascinatingly funny and offbeat new film, “A Serious Man,” there are no answers – or at least no simple answers. And even the complicated answers are open to interpretation – and of little solace to Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), the hero of this film. (More…)

It’s been 30 years since “Kramer vs. Kramer” took movie audiences by surprise with its tale of a workaholic dad forced to reorder his priorities to focus on being a caregiver (back before anyone had heard the term “caregiver”).

That film was a change of pace for Dustin Hoffman, softening an edgy image and earning him his first Oscar. Now here comes Clive Owen in Scott Hicks’ “The Boys Are Back,” a reworking of similar themes in a way that is just as telling and just as affecting. (More…)

Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” is a scathing indictment of modern America’s “me first” approach to the social contract. He may have made more tightly focused films, but this is still an urgently important piece of work. (More…)

I don’t even want to think about what it portends that a film as good as Stanley Tucci’s “Blind Date” has had to wait almost two years for distribution. It’s not a healthy sign, to be sure.

Oh, who am I kidding? The bottom has dropped out of the market for serious films, independent or otherwise. Bread and circuses – audiences just want diversion. they want mindless entertainment that doesn’t force them to think – about their own lives or the world at large. The only place to consistently find quality original drama these days is on cable TV. (More…)

Part Parisian travelogue, part Robert Altman film, Cedric Klapisch’s “Paris” is engaging without really being memorable. It ends almost where it starts, and so feels like it doesn’t go much of anywhere at all. (More…)

At a time when anything goes on the Internet and even network TV is loosening its standards in terms of the language and behavior it depicts, you’ve got to wonder who the audience is for a love story where the most passionate moments are built around romantic poetry and a few chaste kisses.

Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” is such a film. A story about the love (one hesitates to call it an affair) between the short-lived poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his neighbor, a young woman named Fanny Brawne (Abby Cornish), Campion’s film is about the love of beauty – particularly the ability of poetry to move the soul – and about longing.

But longing is a tough thing to dramatize on film. (More…)

“Jennifer’s Body” should belong to Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning writer of “Juno.” It could have been an updated, horror-thriller version of “Heathers”: smart, witty, outrageously dark.

Two problems: Cody’s script is barely funny – and what humor there is gets crushed by the heavy-handed direction of Karyn Kusama and the marginal acting skills of Megan Fox. (More…)

Guillermo Arriaga didn’t invent nonlinear storytelling, but he’s made it something of a specialty in his work.

In his scripts for director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu on films such as “Amores Perros,” “Babel” and “21 Grams,” Arriaga sliced and diced narrative in a variety of ways – from “Amores”’ retelling of the same story from different perspectives to “21 Grams”’ jigsaw-puzzle intensity.

So it’s no surprise that he would do something similar with his directorial debut, “The Burning Plain.” (More…)