On demand picks

December 23, 2009

THE WRESTLER

(HBO on Comcast) Darren Aronofsky’s film is a character study, yet it’s open-ended enough to function as many things, including the resuscitation of Mickey Rourke, actor. The latter is touching as a former pro wrestling superstar (above) trying to make it in the real world. With Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. (R; runs through Dec. 28) TY BURR

THE DARK KNIGHT

(HBO on Comcast) A grimly Wagnerian blockbuster with a diseased butterfly named Heath Ledger flitting through its murk. Much more serious than 2005’s “Batman Begins.’’ (PG-13; runs through Dec. 28) TY BURR

TROPIC THUNDER

(HBO on Comcast) It only sounds like a Thai porno. Really it’s a war movie within a comedy. Five actors - Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson - playing soldiers caught behind enemy lines in Vietnam actually wind up behind enemy lines and assume that somehow they’re still being filmed. Written by Stiller, Etan Cohen, and the actor Justin Theroux and directed by Stiller, the movie is usually very funny and especially where, powerfully surreal, Tom Cruise is concerned. He’s the heart of darkness in this Vietnam-film send-up, a movie star having the time of his life playing a war criminal. (R; runs through Dec. 28) WESLEY MORRIS