Lionsgate Entertainment

CHICAGO – It’s easy to forget just how good of an actor Matthew McConaughey can be with the right vehicle. He delivered what may be his best performance to date in Jill Sprecher’s 2001 multi-character drama “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,” in which he played a slick lawyer whose unbreakable self-esteem is shattered by a sudden crisis of conscience.

CHICAGO – Miles Teller was star-struck. He had just landed his first film role, and found himself on a set surrounded by some of the biggest actors in Hollywood. Many of his scenes took place on a park bench, where he had tearful and poignant conversations with co-star Nicole Kidman.

CHICAGO – With all the creatively bankrupt, audience-repelling dreck clogging up theaters these days, it’s easy to see why a comedian would sign up for a challenging art house satire rather than pick up a fat, unearned pay check. Robin Williams delivered his best work in years in Bobcat Goldthwait’s “World’s Greatest Dad,” and now Jim Carrey adds to his streak of woefully underrated performances in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s “I Love You Phillip Morris.”

CHICAGO – Any film that adds to the climate debate by bringing in a fresh and intelligent voice is certainly worth one’s time. From that perspective, “Cool It” is a documentary of considerable value, though it’s less rewarding than one might hope. Though it aims to be the cinematic rebuttal to “An Inconvenient Truth,” it falls far short, in part because the film simply isn’t as well-crafted or effective as Davis Guggenheim’s 2006 Oscar-winner.

CHICAGO – Stalled cars, prophetic visions, fresh meat in need of tenderizing, and off-handed expulsions of the dreaded line, “I’ll be right back.” These are merely a handful of the timeworn elements utilized by two new direct-to-video releases from After Dark Films. Both pictures are competently made and well acted, which makes their lack of originality all the more depressing.

CHICAGO – Two equally ignored Oscar bait contenders from 2010 centered on the same basic question: to what extent would you go to free your beloved from prison? Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction” and Paul Haggis’s “The Next Three Days,” are less interested in the characters behind bars than they are about those on the outside looking (and breaking) in. While neither film is Best Picture material, both are certainly worth a look.

CHICAGO – With all the depth and nuance of a Nike commercial, “Michael Jordan to the Max” probes into the mind of its titular subject, a man as infamous for his astonishing achievements in basketball as he is for his spectacular success as a corporate spokesperson. This 46-minute feature is not about Jordan the person, but Jordan the marketable icon: family man, mentor, role model, eternal optimist.

CHICAGO – Many films have attempted to portray the unimaginably terrifying experience of being buried alive, from George Sluizer’s bone-chillingly bleak thriller, “The Vanishing,” to Quentin Tarantino’s crowd-pleaser, “Kill Bill Vol. 2.” Yet Rodrigo Cortés’ “Buried” is the first film in cinema history to take place entirely within the rectangular confines of a coffin.

CHICAGO – His face is inviting, but his intentions are ambiguous and perhaps somewhat devious. That’s precisely the type of character that Patrick Fabian has mastered. He’s lent disarming charisma to a variety of characters, from the self-righteously scheming man of faith in “Big Love” to the flamboyantly sleazy car company executive in “Pushing Daisies.”

CHICAGO – When A.O. Scott described this film as “Passion of the Christ” for liberals, I couldn’t help finding his catchy summation to be awfully glib. “Agora” is a film about ideas, whereas “Passion” was merely about Mel Gibson’s masochism. Director Alejandro Amenábar has crafted a fascinating and haunting historical epic that never exploits its violent subject matter.