Blended, Chinese Puzzle, Cold in July, The Dance of Reality, Half of a Yellow Sun, Words and Pictures, The Love Punch

Blended

Chinese Puzzle

Cold in July

The Dance of Reality



Half of a Yellow Sun

Words and Pictures

The Love Punch

Brief capsules from another mediocre week in what has been an unimpressive movie year to date:

Young & Beautiful, The Retrieval

Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie)

The Retrieval

Another pedestrian title, "Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie)," lines the marquee for French auteur François Ozon's latest halfhearted attempt at scandal.

The Immigrant

James Gray's "The Immigrant" is just as generic and uninspired as its title, and looks like it was shot through pickle juice.

Neighbors, Cyber-Seniors, God's Pocket

God's Pocket

Neighbors

Cyber-Seniors




Rose Byrne scores the biggest laughs in the frat-versus-family comedy smash "Neighbors," including a line so unexpected and politically incorrect I almost fell over when it came out of her mouth.

Palo Alto

In Gia Coppola's debut feature "Palo Alto," Emma Roberts plays April, a hard-working and conscientious high school student who spends most Saturday nights babysitting for her soccer coach, Mr. B (James Franco, looking edible in his black tracksuit).

The Double

In Richard Ayoade's new stunt of a movie, "The Double," Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon James, a mouse of a man employed in data entry in a dimly lit, windowless, seemingly subterranean sea of cubicles overseen by fast-talking Mr. Papadopoulos (Wallace Shawn), a conceit that owes as much to Jeunet and Caro as to Dostoevsky.

Chef

You can't say Jon Favreau lacks for chutzpah.

The Cold Lands

Tom Gilroy directed a little gem called "Spring Forward" that snuck onto my top-ten list at the tail end of 2000.

Bicycling with Moliѐre

Gauthier (Lambert Wilson), the distinguished and dashing middle-aged star of a hit French medical series, day-trips to the picturesque île de Ré, where he surprises his old acting buddy Serge (Fabrice Luchini) with a proposition.

For No Good Reason, Belle, Ida



Ida

For No Good Reason






Belle

Capsule reviews on the weekend's art-house offerings:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Almost all the joy that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone brought to the rebooted "The Amazing Spider-Man" two years ago has been sucked out of the fun-free zone that is "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which makes up in volubility what it lacks in coherence and dramatic thrust.