"Meek's Cutoff" (PG, 104 minutes). The first film I've seen that evokes what must have been the actual reality of wagon trains to the West. A small party of three families realize their guide has become lost in leading them on the Oregon Trail through the Cascade Mountains. They are dwarfed by the vast implacable landscape. The men privately discuss their untrusted guide, while the women strain to listen--because the focus of director Kelly Reichardt is on the women (Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan, Shirley Henderson). She makes no attempt to supply convenient character conflicts, showing each pioneer humbled by helplessness in this landscape. Also starring Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Paul Dano and Neal Huff. Three and a half stars

"Everything Must Go" (PG-13, 97 minutes). Will Ferrell plays an alcoholic who loses his job and comes home to find himself locked out, with all his stuff on the lawn. He settles into a recliner, starts on a 12-pack, and spends the night. Eventually he's aided by a neighbor kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace) to hold a yard sale, meets a woman (Rebecca Hall) who has moved in across the street, and finds that the local cop (Michael Pena) was his AA sponsor. With Laura Dern as an old flame. Ferrell is very good --better than the film.

"Make Believe" (G, 90 minutes) A charming documentary about the finalists in the Teenage Magician Contest at the annual World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas. From Malibu, Chicago, Colorado, Japan and South Africa they come, dreaming of being presented with first place by the star Lance Burton. The documentary visits their homes, gets their stories, talks to their friends and parents, and follows them backstage in Vegas. But mostly it watches them practice, over and over and over. Three stars

"Twelve Thirty" (Unrated; for adults; 120 minutes). Involves a 22-year-old named Jeff (Jonathan Groff) and all four members of the Langley family of Iowa City. The daughters are played by Mamie Gummer and Portia Reiners, the parents by Karen Young and Reed Birney, and a scene is superbly stolen by veteran British actresses Barbara Barrie and Rebecca Schull. Much perhaps too "written" conversation that might play better on the stage. Much nudity and some sex, but in a thoughtful context. It doesn't work but I doubt you'll regret seeing it. Directed by Jeff Lipsky. Two and a half stars.

"Forks Over Knives" (PG, 90 minutes). A shattering no-nonsense wakeup call about the lethal modern diet. Using massive long-term studies, the film argues that disease is largely influenced by diet, and that an ideal diet is a plant-based whole foods one, with no animal protein or dairy. Not an easy message to hear, but the evidence is overwhelming. Not a subtle film; plays almost as if it had been made for doctors to see in medical school. Three stars

Poetry slams began in Chicago in 1984 and have become an international phenomenon without most people probably having heard of them. They're poetry readings as a spectator sport. Individuals and teams are scored by judges on the Olympic 10-point scale, but while Olympic diving judges claim to be looking at specific elements in a dive, slam judges are responding to emotion, charisma and--well, poetry. Some slammers are also rap artists, but slam and rap and different art forms, and slammers rely only on their voices.

Playing at Facets 5/12-5/15. Director Zach Levy will appear after the Thursday and Friday screenings. "Strongman" is a tantalizing example of the kind of documentary I find engrossing: A film about an unusual person that invites us into the mystery of a human life. Stanley Pleskun bills himself as "Stanless Steel, the Strongest Man Alive." Whether this is true is beside the point. Stanless, as I will call him, believes it absolutely. His girlfriend Barbara and his brother Michael agree, I gather, although they never actually say so.

"Hesher" (R, 105 minutes). Hesher, a heavy metal weirdo who is never really explained, materializes in the life of young T.J. (Devin Brochu) and moves into T.J.'s house. T.J.'s family is desolate. His mother was killed not long ago in an accident. His father (Rainn Wilson) sits stunned by depression on the sofa, staring at the TV. His grandmother (Piper Laurie) drifts on a cloud of vagueness through their lives. Natalie Portman plays supermarket cashier who befriends T.J. One by one, each character creates interest, but brought together they're all elbows and angles, fitted uneasily into a film too small for the deliberately transgressive Hesher. Two and a half stars

"Bridesmaids" (R, 128 minutes). Kristen Wiig's new comedy is about a group of women friends who are as cheerfully vulgar as the guys in "Hangover." Wigg plays Annie, whose Milwaukee bakery shop has just gone bust, and whose longtime friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting married. Naturally, she expects to be Maid of Honor, but begins to fear a rival in Helen (Rose Byrne), the rich and overconfident trophy wife of the groom's boss. Gifted with getting in her own way, she creates havoc during a bachelorette trip to Vegas; the level of raunch approaches "The Hangover," and is sometimes sort of brilliant. Three and a half stars

"Thor" (PG-13, 114 minutes). In the arena of movies about comic book superheroes, it a vastation. Nothing exciting happens, little of interest is said, and the special effects evoke not a place or a time but simply special effects. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a dullard, his hammer is a bore, and the Earth scientists (Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings) are thin soup. Nor are there exciting villains. One and a half stars.

"Something Borrowed" (PG-13, 112 minutes). Kate Hudson plays Darcy, the lifelong best friend of the heroine, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin). Blonde, rich and headstrong, as the film opens she's about to be married to Dex (Colin Egglesfield), who Rachel has had a crush on since law school. No good can come of this. Also involved are party animal Ethan (John Krasinski) and Rachel's best friend Marcus (Steve Howey). The movie is about how none of these people seem able to express their true feelings, and finally we can't admire them enough to like them as we should. Two stars.

"Jumping the Broom" (PG-13). A comedy involving a marriage between two old African-American families, one working-class from Brooklyn, one very, very rich and living on a priceless slice of Martha's Vineyard. Sabrina and Jason (Paula Patton and Laz Alonso) are an attractive couple, but the fireworks are between their mothers, Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine. Yes, they're too broadly drawn, but that goes with the territory in what is basically a glossy upscale sitcom. I enjoyed myself. Three stars

Of all the many documentaries about the Holocaust, this was the first, made before the term was routinely linked to the event more properly called the Shoah. "Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today" was edited from many hours of film taken at the 11-month Nuremberg Trial, which starting in 1945 placed 22 high-ranking Nazis on trial for crimes which together amounted to an outrage against decency. Assembled and edited by Stuart Schulberg with U. S. government funding, the film was exhibited throughout Germany in 1948 and 1949, and then taken from release and never seen in America.

"The Beaver" (PG-13, 91 minutes). Mel Gibson plays a man mired in depression, who almost loses his family and business before being saved when a beaver hand puppet apparently starts talking for him. This is a sincere directorial effort by Jodie Foster, has a wonderful performance by Gibson, and is almost successful despite the premise of the screenplay. But as good as Gibson is, his character is still caught between the tragedy of the man and the absurdity of the Beaver. Two and a half stars

"Queen to Play" (Unrated, 96 minutes). Sandrine Bonnaire stars as a hotel maid on Coorsica, who sees two playing a game of chess that looks for all the world like foreplay. She gives her husband a chess set, although he doesn't play, and teaches herself the moves. She clears for a doctor (Kevin Kline) who agrees to play with her, and the movie plunges into the lucid, logical waters of an obsession with the bottomless game. In broad terms, about female empowerment. In more specific terms, about a mind that discovers something it is very good at. Three and a half stars

"Fast Five" (PG-13, 130 minutes). Justin Lin's third entry in the Fast and Furious franchise reunites Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster, and adds Dwayne Johnson, creating a sort of reunion of reckless drivers. A skillfully assembled genre picture, with actors capable of doing absurd things with straight faces, and action sequences that toy idly with the laws of physics. Crash Crash Bang Bang. Three stars

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (Unrated, 90 minutes). Werner Herzog's spellbinding 3D documentary about the Chauvet Cave in France. where 32,000 years ago, above the Ardèche River in Southern France, humans created the oldest cave paintings known to exist. His narration evokes mystery and wonder as we regard these masterful early signs of man's artistry. Filmed in 3D, not as a gimmick but to better show how the paintings follow the contours of the rock walls. Three and a half stars

"The Princess of Montpensier" (Unrated, 139 minutes). In France in 1562, a beautiful young princess (Melanie Thierry) is married off to a callow husband and yet remains the passionate obsession of two powerful men, and the great love of her tutor (Lambert Wilson). Bertrand Tavernier's historical romance is grounded in the daily realities of the period, and sympathizes with the plight of a smart young woman whose society view her entirely as a possession. Sweeping pastoral settings, shadowy castle intrigues, swashbuckling, heaving bosoms, and great style. Three and a half stars

"Queen of the Sun" (Unrated, 82 minutes). One of the most beautiful nature films I've seen, visiting in exquisite cinematography the insides of hives and the domains of the dedicated pollinators who make flowers, fruits and vegetables possible. With agribusiness concentrating on single crops, and using chemical pesticides, the balance of nature is being thrown off at our peril. Directed by Taggart Siegel ("The Real Dirt on Farmer John"). Three stars

"Stake Land" (R, 96 minutes.) A young narrator (Connor Paolo), his family massacred by vampire-zombie hybrids called "vamps," is saved by Mister (Nick Damici) and travels through badlands on their way to a perhaps mythical New Eden. On their guest they're joined by Sister (Kelly McGillis), Belle (Danielle Harris), a pregnant young girl, and Willie (Sean Nelson), an ex-Marine. Good-looking, well-played and atmospheric. Three stars