AMOUR 4 stars. Michael Haneke's remarkable and heart-breaking portrait of an elderly Parisian couple stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. When she falls ill, he must care of her, throwing the quiet, comfortable lives of these two retired musicians into chaos. A sad and beautiful - and occasionally frightening - masterpiece. 2 hrs. 07 PG-13 (adult themes) - Steven Rea

ANY DAY NOW 3 stars. Solid performances by Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt flesh out the bare-bones script of this period piece about gay lovers who petition for custody of a Down syndrome teen while his mother serves time for drugs. 1 hr. 41 R (sexual content, drug use) - Carrie Rickey

BARBARA 4 stars. Nina Hoss gives an amazingly controlled, nuanced performance as a doctor exiled to the provinces in the cold, gray East Germany of 1980. Mistrust hangs in the air in this hushed, suspenseful character study. A gem from filmmaker Christian Petzold. 1 hr. 45 PG-13 (sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES 2 1/2 stars. A trippy, over-the-top supernatural teen romance, about a Goth-y witch girl (Alice Englert) and the mere mortal high school boy (Alden Ehrenreich) who falls for her. Diabolical curses and Civil War flashbacks ensue - and Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons talk up a dark magic storm. Adapted from the first book in the YA series "Caster Chronicles." 2 hrs. 04 PG-13 (violence, scares, sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea

THE CALL 2 stars. A sordid slice of abduction porn, with Halle Berry as a veteran 911 operator who is not, no way, never, going to let the 16-year-old girl trapped in the trunk of a psycho's car disappear and die. Abigail Breslin displays a wide range of shrieks, squeals, yelps and sobs as the victim, and Morris Chestnut is Berry's LAPD cop boyfriend. 1 hr. 34 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: WORLDS AWAY 2 1/2 stars. Andrew Adamson's 3-D production has the trippy fun of the London Olympics opening ceremony minus the intentional laughs. Choppy editing intrudes upon the appreciation of the breathtaking aerial moves. 1 hr. 31 PG (sensual dancing and acrobatics) - Carrie Rickey

DARK HORSE 3 stars. Todd Solondz' latest suburban chamber of horrors is a wonderfully realized and surprisingly understated dark satire, an odd - and, at times, oddly endearing - love story between rude, obese, unlikable Abe and narcissistic, depressive Miranda. 1 hr. 24 No MPAA rating (mature themes, profanity) - Tirdad Derakhshani

DEAD MAN DOWN 1 1/2 stars. Colin Farrell stars in this unwitting gangland noir parody, about a hitman, his boss, a moody moll and a mess of badness and betrayal. Noomi Rapace is the emotionally and physically scarred femme fatale, and Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper and F. Murray Abraham also star. 1 hr. 50 R (violence, profanity, sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea

DJANGO UNCHAINED 2 1/2 stars. Quentin Tarantino homages Mandingo, spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation, Sam Peckinpah and the Three Stooges, in this all-over-the-place antebellum western. Jamie Foxx gets the title role, a slave promised freedom if he helps a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) track down some mugs. With Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonard DiCaprio as a plantation owner, twirling his mustache with sinister glee. R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

EMPEROR 2 stars. A general working with Douglas MacArthur tries to assess Hirohito's complicity in attacking the U.S. - but also tries to find the Japanese exchange student he fell in love with before the war - in this historically interesting (but perhaps historically suspect) mix of romantic shmaltz and post-war angst and intrigue. Matthew Fox stars. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (violence, war, adult themes) - Steven Rea