Noah IMAX ***

With this gritty, grand, poetic, and violent version of the great flood myth, Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler," "Black Swan") creates a new view of a religious fanatic and family cult leader. Noah receives visions as he wanders the ruined landscape of a depleted world laid waste by men. He is led to construct a huge floating box to save the animals of earth from the watery wrath of the Creator. With some fantastical interpretations of fallen angels and a foreshadowing of Abraham and the binding of Isaac, "Noah" is sometimes lyrical, sometimes a fevered dream in a tempest, and sometimes a bombastic shocker with an unfortunate resemblance to a Transformers sequel.

Uneven though it may be, through it all the gravel-voiced Russell Crowe is the rock, the one thing the family - wife, sons, and adopted daughter - can count on. Until they can't. When the drive and fanaticism turn inward, the logic, guilt,  and the punishment are inescapable. Jennifer Connelly as Noah's wife effectively conveys the love, dedication, fear, and desperation of her situation. Emma Watson finds a similar range in her portrayal of Ila, the adopted daughter who develops a love for son Shem. Anthony Hopkins is suitably wise and effective as the aged grandfather Methuselah. And Ray Winstone as the kingly heir of Cain is a worthy counterweight to Crowe's Noah.

This vision of Noah is unlikely to please a religious audience, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. But it uses the elements of the flood story in a dramatically powerful way, with a particularly effective style and superb special effects that are always in service of the story. Its message, about both the stewardship of the earth and the redemptive power of love, resonates deeply despite its flaws.

Muppets Most Wanted ***

The Muppets are back in a terrific sequel, on the road again performing in major European capitals. This time they're under the management of Ricky Gervais as Dominic Badguy (pronounced "bahd - gee" please) who is in cahoots with an evil Kermit look-alike, while the real Kermie languishes in the gulag.

It's great seeing all the characters again with a raft of new songs, inventive sight gags, and sly digs at everyone and everything imaginable. In addition to Gervais there are other strong humans in the cast, including Tina Fey as a Siberian prison commandant, Ty Burrell as a French Interpol inspector, and a host of often-hilarious cameos from celebrities literally too numerous to mention.

The songs don't always catch, and the movie slumps in the second half hour, but Tina Fey's prison musical review and Ty Burrell's inspector one-upping the CIA's Sam Eagle are inspired bits of lunacy. I remind parents that the Muppets, though denizens of Disney, are PG rated, not G, so much of the humor will be inaccessible to the youngest. Judging by the restive tykes in the theater I saw today, you can be too young for the Muppets.

Bad Words ***

Softened by a repentant voice-over narration by the culprit, "Bad Words" indulges in wicked insult comedy and inappropriate verbal abuse of children competing in spelling bees. It is, I must admit, often deliciously funny.

In his directorial debut, Jason Bateman also stars as a gifted speller, Guy Trilby, on a strange quest to win the national spelling bee. He gets in on a technicality and is sponsored by an online news organization whose publisher/reporter, played by the versatile Kathryn Hahn, has taken on the task in the hopes of scoring a big human interest story. As someone who has survived and thrived as an actor since he was a child himself, one can imagine how the perennial nice guy Bateman must have relished the opportunity to let fly with some exceedingly blue verbal arias. There are many line-crossing moments.

But there is also a child he takes an interest in, played with wide-eyed innocence by Rohan Chand. And here Bateman's experience surely guided the fantastic performance that emerges. Kathryn Hahn is a great foil for Bateman's character, and Allison Janney fumes and schemes appropriately as the national show runner. In the end the reason is revealed, and Trilby learns something his photographic memory cannot provide.

A cautionary note, prompted by the unfortunate experience of an acquaintance who rented "Ted" for her young boys, thinking anything starring a teddy bear would be fine, please note that this movie about kids in a spelling bee is rated R for a very good reason.

Divergent IMAX ***

Thin on content and overlong, the Hunger Games wannabe "Divergent" is at least enlivened by the performances of its two leads, Shailene Woodley and Theo James.  Woodley plays Tris, who has just chosen the faction she will ally with for her adult life in the future dystopian land-locked Chicago, where everyone must choose which of five cardinal virtues suits them best. Surprising her family and perhaps even herself, she chooses the most physically demanding one to apprentice, where James' character Four becomes her trainer, advisor, and coach.

Hyped as a more confident and resilient heroine than girls are used to seeing, Woodley seems to grow with the role, with drills and circumstances driving her to become a leader. James gets the tough love bit down, displaying a sensitivity beneath the hard shell exterior that hits the mark. In an inspired choice of casting against type, Kate Winslet plays the cold, calculating, and self-deluded leader of a rival faction. Supporting roles are fine, with Miles Teller and Maggie Q especially creating memorable characters.

I suspect the book had a lot more content, but as presented in the movie the factions are barely described, with an emphasis on conflicts that hints of a history that is unrevealed. The film focuses on the brutal bouts and trials of her new profession, then shifts to the battle that has been brewing. Clearly at his best with intimate scenes, director Neil Burger, whose work was so confidant in "Limitless," struggles to stage the war scenes here, which are confused and lack orientation, a frame of reference, while the mock battle in the training section was tight and effective. The climactic scene suffers from the same sponginess and weird dilation of time when lives are at stake.

Hopefully the next installment will not spend so much time on so little and will introduce a new world and characters beyond the walls of the future Chicago.

The Grand Budapest Hotel ****

A delightful, intricate comedy, encased like a gem in several boxes within boxes of narration, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" details the story of its most celebrated, meticulous, attentive, considerate, and rather randy concierge, M. Gustave (a perfectly cast Ralph Fiennes). Wes Anderson's latest work is set in a mythical Eastern European country at a mountaintop resort in the period between the great wars, lending it a darker tone than we've seen from Anderson lately as the military becomes more and more evident and in control.

Told from the viewpoint of the lobby boy who will one day own the hotel (not a spoiler), Zero Moustafa (a superb Tony Revolori) becomes the protégé, confidant, co-conspirator, and friend of the resourceful, exceedingly well-mannered, cultured fountain of poetry that is M. Gustave. They barge into a dangerous situation when they go to pay their respects to an aged long-time regular guest (an unrecognizable Tilda Swinton) who turns up murdered after she returns home. Her bequest to M. Gustave precipitates events involving rapacious relatives and imprisonment for the legendary concierge.

It's a fast-moving story, told with wit and inventive composition. Exteriors of the hotel have a cutout, marzipan quality. Camera work in chase scenes take on the spirit of the 'twenties. For most of the movie, Anderson even changes the aspect ratio of the frame to what was the style in the 'thirties after peeling back the layers to get to the story.

Supporting actors are a delight, including Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Tom Wilkinson. Saoirse Ronan strikes just the right tone as Zero's girlfriend and help mate. Composer Alexandre Desplat deserves special praise for his choices, arrangements, and compositions. And thanks to director Wes Anderson, who also has a writing credit, for giving us another great movie.

Stranger by the Lake (L'inconnu du lak) ****

Set entirely at a lake frequented by men looking for anonymous sex, "Stranger by the Lake" builds suspense and dread as it explores carnal desire, loneliness, sexual attraction, depression, and friendship in the shadow of a murder committed there. This demimonde is a strange place, as its habitués leave their ordinary lives behind, free from names, history, and relationships of the everyday world. But it's here that Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) finds what he is looking for in the person of Michel (Christophe Paou), an attraction that is beyond reason, prudence, and evidence. The story seems to say there is a mystery about life and sex that can be shown, but not explained.

The film has a detached, almost clinical point of view, and does not cut away from full nudity or even graphic sex. Given its subject matter, the director, Alain Guiraudie, could hardly do otherwise. "Stranger by the Lake," or "L'inconnu du lak" in its original French, is beautifully made, intriguing, erotic, and fascinating. The film, not rated and subtitled in English, has appeared widely on the festival circuit, winning "Un Certain Regard" at Cannes for Guiraudie last year, and a Cesar, the French Oscar, for Deladonchamps for most promising new actor. 

Non-Stop ***

A suspenseful, satisfying popcorn thriller with Liam Neeson as the flawed protagonist we've come to expect, "Non-Stop" delivers enough surprises to keep even jaded fans taken in. Neeson plays Bill Marks, a weary air marshall on yet another trans-Atlantic flight. He starts getting threatening messages on his secure phone demanding payment to an off-shore account, or else passengers will start to die. Sure enough, the body count starts, but again, not in the way you, or he, might have expected.

Marks' seat mate, Jen Summers (a somewhat mysterious Julianne Moore), is by turns helpful and under suspicion. As his efforts hit one obstacle after another, the plane hurtles through a countdown toward doom. Marks employs more and more desperate tactics, and in large part the film lives up to its name, never flagging or pausing.

While this is above all Neeson's movie, the supporting roles are solid, anchored by fine work as usual from Julianne Moore. Recent Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o has a small role as a flight attendant, alongside Michelle Dockery as the other business class attendant with a history. Director Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Neeson in the thriller "Unknown" (2011), again delivers a workmanlike production.