Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

In the oddly punctuated "Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)," Michael Keaton plays a Hollywood has-been named Riggan Thompson taking one last stab at seriousness as a Broadway hyphenate, pouring the last drabs of his comic-book movie fortune into a Raymond Carver adaptation and watching - with half desperation, half resignation - as it threatens to crumble before opening.

Love is Strange, Are You Here

Love is Strange

Are You Here

Too much Chopin, not enough substance in the sleepy, white-people-problems movie "Love is Strange," starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as Ben and George, a Manhattan couple of forty years who finally tie the knot.

The Hangover Part III

While it doesn't approach the heights of hilarity and freshness attained by the original "Hangover," Part III of the trilogy delivers an unexpected number of big laughs.

The Campaign

“The Campaign” has three writers, four producers, and zero laughs. Pitting Will Ferrell’s pandering, sex-addict Representative Cam Brady against Zack Galifianakis’ lovable loser, Marty Huggins (a watered-down version of Alan from “The Hangover”), this toothless satire of modern politics takes place on an alternate planet where a candidate gets a bump in the polls by intentionally seducing and bedding his opponent’s wife; a candidate overcomes a double-digit deficit with an Election Day ad encouraging voters to reveal their deepest secrets; and the winning candidate concedes the House seat to his opponent because he’s a nice guy.

Craigslist Joe, The Imposter

Craigslist Joe

The Imposter

Joe Garner’s documentary “Craigslist Joe,” about the month the Angeleno spent “living off Craigslist” – traveling the country depending for food and shelter on the kindness of online strangers – is an oddly inchoate, at times unintelligible picture. The project itself never takes coherent shape: Must he merely survive? Must he go anywhere in particular? Must he accomplish anything? Honestly, it feels like an excuse for a privileged Hollywood kid (his buddy Zach Galifianakis produced) to make his first feature. Having arrived at a few self-evident epiphanies, Garner tries to give the movie heft toward the end, but only lurches into the maudlin. His movie’s a bit of an embarrassment.