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September 13, 2012 Nicholas Jarecki's directorial debut takes an "appealingly adult" view of New York's elite, according to NPR critic Jeannette Catsoulis. Hedge fund manager Robert Miller (Richard Gere) struggles to maintain his composure when a tragic car accident threatens his gilded life. (Recommended)

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September 7, 2012 Ira Sachs' reportedly semi-autobiographical romantic drama, Keep the Lights On, follows the nine-year relationship between a filmmaker and a drug-addicted lawyer. The couple on screen is falling apart, but the film itself is sure-footed and satisfying, says critic Bob Mondello.

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September 7, 2012 Leslye Headland makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of her own play about three bridesmaids whose bad habits and emotional issues threaten to undermine their friend's impending wedding. It's tonally uneven but engrossing, says critic David Edelstein.

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September 6, 2012 Henry Olek's Serving Up Richard never quite accomplishes the scares of horror or the laughs of comedy, and can't decide on its formal direction, critic Ian Buckwalter says. The acting feels flat and melodramatic, and the film's stabs at homage are largely off-putting.

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September 6, 2012 Fred Schepisi, a classicist filmmaker, delivers an adaptation of Patrick White's novel The Eye of the Storm that feels like it's lost in time and space, says critic Stephanie Zacharek. It's a handsomely shot family drama with virtuoso acting, even if its stateliness can be a little wearying.

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September 6, 2012 Picking up where the British TV series left off, The Inbetweeners follows its four immature male protagonists to Crete, where their cruelty to each other and others renders them almost intolerable. But, according to critic Joel Arnold, their experiences are rendered sensitively.

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September 6, 2012 Leslye Headland's entry into the female-fronted raunch comedy genre is refreshingly straightforward, until the movie bends over backward to make its nasty anti-heroines "relatable," says critic Stephanie Zacharek. Still, Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher shine.

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September 6, 2012 In the directorial debut of screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, sensitive author Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) stumbles upon a manuscript and passes it off as his own. The success that follows is tempered by an encounter with the real author.

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September 6, 2012 So Yong Kim's film follows a misanthropic rocker (Paul Dano) going through a divorce and encountering his 6-year-old daughter. Improvised dialogue and on-location shootings provide a bleak realism, but the film doesn't do much with character, says critic Mark Jenkins.

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September 4, 2012 A new documentary follows a modeling agent and his scout, former model Ashley Arbaugh, as they export young Russian girls to Tokyo to participate in a cutthroat, underpaid modeling industry.

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August 30, 2012 Set in a desaturated landscape ravaged by an unexplained cataclysm, The Day follows a band of five survivors as they evade predators in a farmhouse hideout. Not all is as it seems in this impenetrably bleak thriller, as critic Joel Arnold explains.

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August 30, 2012 Newest in a recent string of male-directed, female-written raunch comedies, For a Good Time, Call ... follows initially mismatched roommates who bond over a phone-sex business venture. Critic Ella Taylor says it presents a curious twist on how people express love.

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August 30, 2012 Set in a wasteland on the bank of California's Salton Sea, Elgin James' debut feature follows mean-spirited Lily (Juno Temple) and her subservient best friend, Allison (Kay Panabaker) — and fits handily into the tradition of teenage self-destruction films, says critic Ian Buckwalter.

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August 30, 2012 Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, a 3-D wuxia film from Tsui Hark, takes full advantage of the format's dynamism for its wild fight scenes. The plot is convoluted, without much below the surface, but it's "raucously entertaining," says critic Stephanie Zacharek.

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August 28, 2012 Adapted from Matt Bondurant's fictionalized account of his vicious family history, Lawless has an overabundance of characters and subplots, says critic Stephanie Zacharek. Its violence is direct, but not its plot.

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