Michael Jackson’s This Is It A compilation of footage from rehearsals for what would have been the late singer’s 50 concerts in London. The film arrives with an eerie taint. Yet watching Jackson pop, lock, rock, writhe, thrust, and clutch his crotch, we often see someone who’s vibrantly, reassuringly human. He’s a life force. He’s the Wiz. (98 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)
More Than a Game This documentary about the pre-NBA career of basketball superstar LeBron James is as much about friendship as sports, focusing on the bond among James and four teammates. The presentation can be overwrought, but the material is emotionally rich and often involving. (105 min., PG) (Mark Feeney)
New York, I Love You A desultory compilation of short episodes (about 15 or so) that, once assembled into a 110-minute film, are meant to stir in us the feeling that New York is a sexy, romantic, thrillingly random place where anything can go down. Sadly, two of those things are your eyelids. (110 min., R) (Wesley Morris)
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America Two Vikings, stranded in the new world of 1007 AD, hunt, gather, cook, and laze around a fire. Written and directed by Tony Stone, the movie is actually more involving than a film that shrinks the line separating seriousness from keeping a straight face should be. Driven by its synth-rock soundtrack, it’s more like the visual approximation of prog rock: long, immersive, textural, ambient, and, in its enjoyably ridiculous way, not entirely kidding. (108 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)
35 Shots of Rum Only in the final scenes of Claire Denis’s latest bewitchment do we know for certain how the four main characters, mostly lower-middle-class French people of African descent, fit in each other’s lives. Until then, we do a lot of gleaning. This is a watchful, well-acted, and deeply immersive movie. Its bits-and-pieces vagueness is true to the fragmentary way we get to know strangers. In French, with subtitles. (100 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)
Where the Wild Things Are In adapting Maurice Sendak’s classic book, director Spike Jonze has teased out the melancholy along with the magic. The film has more than its share of wild rumpuses, but its heart is in what happens after the rumpus dies down. Max Records is a fine Max; James Gandolfini and others provide voices. (101 min., PG) (Ty Burr)
An archive of movie reviews can be found at www.boston.com/movies. Theaters are subject to change.
