MOVIE STARS

A full review of “A Man Among Giants,’’ which opened yesterday, is at www.boston.com/films.

A Man Among Giants Documentary on the quixotic 2006 Pawtucket mayoral campaign of a 4-foot-7-inch Republican former pro wrestler Doug “Tiny the Terrible’’ Tunstall against longtime Mayor James Doyle, a Democrat. Trailed by filmmaker Rod Webber, the campaign founders on a daily basis like the Titanic. (94 min., unrated) (Joel Brown)

Away We Go A young couple (Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski) traverse North America looking for the perfect place to raise their unborn baby. It’s great to have a serious movie about people in their 30s, but does it have to be so smug? Directed by Sam Mendes. (90 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

The Brothers Bloom A con game about con games, this fable about brotherly scam artists (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) is manic fun until you realize the entire movie is going to be pitched at the same pace. It’s like being trapped in a hall of mirrors with a performing poodle that doesn’t know how to stop. (109 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

Cheri Michelle Pfeiffer plays a Belle Époque courtesan emotionally entangled with a young Parisian (Rupert Friend). What at first seems a waxwork parody of Merchant Ivory-style filmmaking becomes a surprisingly sharp meditation on beauty and age, both in 19th-century France and the modern film industry. (92 min., R) (Ty Burr)

Departures A young man (Masahiro Motoki) apprentices as a ritual preparer of dead bodies. It’s easy to see why this won the foreign language Oscar over better, tougher movies. It’s the kind of sentimental drama that pats its audience on the back for confronting social taboos. In Japanese, with subtitles (131 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

Food, Inc. Rob Kenner’s documentary is about the extent to which industrial food production has replaced farming in America. Like certain forms of explanatory journalism, the movie intends to assert and shame. It’s part activism, part schoolteacher lecture. (94 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

The Girl From Monaco A brilliant French defense lawyer on a high-profile trial in Monaco forms an uneasy bond with his bodyguard - but will a woman come between them? This movie doesn’t know whether it wants to be a sprightly sex comedy or an enigmatic little thriller. Unfortunately, it’s neither very funny nor thrilling. (95 min., R) (Joel Brown)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs The third installment in the “Ice Age’’ series offers up a stale and sketchy premise: a lost world that plays out far beneath the frozen tundra, where tropical jungles somehow thrive, Jurassic beasts roar, and the most menacing creatures are total softies once you get to know them. In 3-D. (94 min., PG) (Janice Page)

In a Dream Jeremiah Zagar’s tender chronicle of his father’s creative delusions and tumultuous family relationships is an engrossing portrait of the eccentric, quixotic artist whose mosaics cover 50,000 square feet of wall in South Philadelphia. Stunning visuals and elegant camerawork help make the film an intricate work of art. (85 min., unrated) (Laura Bennett)

Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight Wendy Keys’s documentary about the graphic designer responsible for “I NY,’’ as well as numerous other instantly recognizable logos and images, is a lovefest and goes on too long. But Glaser’s so articulate, and his designs so charming, the excess is understandable. (73 min., unrated) (Mark Feeney)

Moon Will there ever be more of Sam Rockwell in one movie than there is here? He plays an astronaut on a space station who discovers he’s not alone - his companions are clones of him. Written and directed by Duncan Jones, the movie’s initially welcome modesty becomes a limitation. (88 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

My Sister’s Keeper A shapeless, hankie-wringing reworking of the Jodi Picoult bestseller about a terminally ill teenage girl and her frayed family. Cameron Diaz is OK as the controlling mom, but Sofia Vassilieva anchors the film as the cancer victim, rebellious, serene, and life-size. With Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin. (109 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

The Proposal Casting in romantic comedy is like eating: Just because you like sardines and cheese doesn’t mean you like them together. Sardines and cheese together is gross. So is Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. She’s his boss, and they fake an engagement to keep her from being deported. (107 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

Public Enemies A disappointment from director Michael Mann, who tells the story of Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger without bothering to explain why. The fault’s not Johnny Depp’s - at this point, the actor is the definition of star power - but misguided camerawork and the lack of a story line. (143 min., R) (Ty Burr)

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 This remake of a 1974 drama about a hijacked subway train and the dispatcher (Denzel Washington) who tries to stop it is good, solid suspense as long as it stays in the tunnel. Once up top, director Tony Scott turns it into just another summer action film. (106 min., R) (Ty Burr)

Tetro Francis Ford Coppola’s mildly involving melodrama about the reunion of two estranged American brothers in Buenos Aires becomes an occasion for Coppola to rediscover the voluptuous filmmaking that used to come so naturally to him. Shot in crisp, expressionistic black and white. (88 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Giant robots smash each other to rivets, the pyramids are reduced to rubble, fighter jets scream across the sky, and Megan Fox’s measurements are draped across the screen for maximum effect. Michael Bay directs; Shia LeBeouf stars. (150 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

Up The new Pixar film is a loopy flyaway fantasy that’s hysterically funny if only to keep the darkness at bay. Less ambitious than “WALL-E ,’’ it tells of an old coot (voice of Ed Asner) and a young kid (Jordan Nagai) who journey by balloon-lofted house to a mythical South America where dogs talk and gooneybirds squawk. (96 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

Whatever Works Minor Woody Allen, based on a 30-year-old script about a Manhattan sourpuss (Larry David, channeling the director) and the Southern-fried youngster (Evan Rachel Wood) he marries. As Wood’s mama, Patricia Clarkson is a regally smutty joy, but the film’s thin and divorced from any reality. (92 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

Women of Faith Rebecca M. Alvin’s documentary attempts to tell a history of New England nuns. It settles on listening to various nuns discuss their relationship to God, the Catholic Church, and their sexuality. As useful and enlightening as some of the film is, it feels like a work in progress. (60 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

Year One Jack Black and Michael Cera are dopey cavemen who travel through various ancient civilizations. The movie’s like a Hope-Crosby road movie written by potty-obsessed 12-year-old boys. Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse get some laughs as the biblical Abraham and Isaac. (97 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

An archive of movie reviews is at www.boston.com/movies.