While many directors are all too content to mine a seam, German-born filmmaker Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire,” “The Buena Vista Social Club,” “Paris, Texas,” the ambitious “Until the End of the World”) has enjoyed a delightfully diverse career, jumping back and forth between narrative and nonfiction works. His latest film, the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-nominated documentary “Pina,” taps into his decades-long friendship with the late, lauded choreographer Pina Bausch, imaginatively exploring her work in 3-D by utilizing the dancers of her Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. In a wide-ranging, half-hour chat — with Dave Matthews Band, the Yeah Yeahs and other light rock tunes unfolding at a remove in the background of the lush…

A pumped-up remake of the same-named 1984 vampire horror-comedy, “Fright Night” represents a well oiled machine of goosed senses that unfortunately has no clearly defined motivating purposes, even within genre confines of its own story. Fun and engaging performances carry the movie a great distance, but it eventually bogs down courtesy of loosely defined stakes (no pun intended) and poorly incentivized action. The story centers on Las Vegas high school senior Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), who lives with his single mom real estate agent, Jane (Toni Collette), and has successfully pivoted away from his geeky past enough to bag a popular girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots). Things get turned upside down…

Movies like “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” aren’t necessarily made for critics, who are frequently presumed to have it in for live-action family films, with their primary colors and jokey, obvious set-ups for the lowest common denominator. And director Mark Waters’ film, starring Jim Carrey as a realtor who inherits a half dozen penguins and finds his swank New York penthouse apartment turned into a raucous, chilly wonderland, is certainly not a subtle thing. But it is sweet, and has a heart, and it also benefits in comparison to many movies of its ilk by the use of actual real, live animals rather than talking critters or overly slick CGI creations. Based on the…

Really like The Fighter? How about Warrior? Well, maybe you should get a taste of the real deal, some of the most brutal battles the sport of boxing has to offer – bare-knuckle fighting. A while back, Ian Palmer was asked to film Michael Quinn McDonagh’s wedding. While there, he ran into Michael’s brother, James, and was asked to film another family function – one of James’ fights. Little did Palmer know, this wasn’t just any fight, it was a bare-knuckle fight that wasn’t just rooted in athleticism; these were battles for family pride. Before long, Palmer was just as hooked as the Quinn McDonaghs and practically became part of…

Title: Crazy Wisdom Director: Johanna Demetrakas “Crazy Wisdom” focuses on a subject perhaps worthy of a documentary, but hopelessly obscured by fawning and myopia. Director Johanna Demetrakas sets her sights on Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a brilliant Tibetan monk who on foot escaped the 1959 Communist invasion of his homeland in quite unlikely fashion, studied and taught at Oxford University, and then shattered Westerner’s preconceptions of Buddhist enlightenment, renouncing his monastic vows, bedding students, drinking alcohol and eventually eloping with the 16-year-old daughter of an aristocrat. Known in many circles as “the bad boy of Buddhism,” Trungpa was at the forefront of a movement that saw Eastern faith, religion, healing and consciousness…

In a business that frequently has the tendency to disproportionately celebrate the contributions only of above-the-line talent, a big part of the allure of something like “African Cats” lies in its below-the-line artisans. An engaging, gorgeously photographed nature documentary that puts audiences on Kenyan plains in stunning fashion amidst its title subjects, this Disneynature title only stumbles in its willful insistence on imposing a family-friendly narrative on footage that is more than capable on its own, with less artificial constraints. What does that mean, straight to the point? Less, or none, of Samuel L. Jackson’s narration, dripping as it is with exaggerated tones that needlessly attempt to dictate mood. Granted, he’s given…

Title: Incendiary: The Willingham Case Directors: Steve Mims and Joe Bailey A murder mystery, forensic investigation and political drama rolled into one, “Incendiary: The Willingham Case” shines a spotlight on the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man convicted in the arson deaths of his three young children. Enjoying particular currency given the alleged manipulation of a post-mortem state forensics commission stacked by current Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, this documentary, flatly told but engaging throughout, will appeal to both newsmagazine junkies and those impassioned by the death penalty debate. In 1991, an early morning house fire in Corsicana, Texas felled a two-year-old girl and twin infants. Their father, the only other…

Title: Under Fire: Journalists in Combat Director: Martyn Burke The drums of war, whatever the specific conflicts, almost always create an opportunity for much in the way of collateral damage. Director Martyn Burke’s “Under Fire: Journalists in Combat” takes the psychological temperature of those who would devote their lives to taking the sort of extraordinary risks that modern day war reportage entails. It’s an involving documentary look at a razor’s-edge occupation, as well as the coping mechanisms of the human brain under stress. Burke, himself a veteran of various warfields around the globe, unfurls his movie in a manner that is judiciously crafted to avoid imparting any sense of swaggering…

Title: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey Director: Constance Marks If the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” spotlights some fascinating occupations that many of us wouldn’t necessarily rush to embrace as our own, then “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey” tells the tale of a job every bit as quirky and atypical, and seemingly a lot more fun, and better smelling. More specifically, it tells the life story of Kevin Clash, an African-American kid who grew up in the 1970s in Baltimore, and eventually would find fortune, if not fame, as the voice of Elmo, a breakout “Sesame Street” character that became a full-fledged zeitgeist phenomenon, spreading from the preschool and adolescent set into the…

The day after Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty in committing involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, TMZ reported that a documentary about Murray and his relationship with Jackson will air in the United States. According to the site, the documentary, Murray agreed to participate in the documentary, called “Michael Jackson and The Doctor: A Fatal Friendship,” was shot during the time Murray was waiting for his manslaughter trial to start. The documentary is supposed to show “shockingly candid” footage of Murray’s preparation for the trial, which also involves some heavy fighting between the lawyers acting as Murray’s representation. Personally, after watching the trial from start to finish,…