Movie Stars

Buried As premises go, this one isn’t bad. What if Ryan Reynolds made an Olivia de Havilland movie? It’s “Lady in a Cage’’ or “The Snake Pit’’ for subscribers of Gentleman’s Quarterly, only the sets are a lot smaller. Reynolds plays a truck driver who finds himself buried alive in Iraq. The central mysteries — how did he get into this mess and how will he get out? — are reasonably entertaining. But the movie makes an embarrassing detour into current political events. (95 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

The Desert of Forbidden Art Documentarians examine the curating efforts of Igor Savitsky, an art aficionado in the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, who, during the 1960s and ’70s, gathered more than 40,000 pieces in a self-created museum. The goal: to protect the paintings from intolerant party bureaucrats back in Moscow. Voice-over dramatizations by Ben Kingsley and Ed Asner are a highlight. (80 min., unrated) (Tom Russo)

Howl Writer-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman try awfully hard to make sense of “Howl,’’ Allen Ginsberg’s epic 1955 rant against conformity. James Franco is very good as the young Ginsberg, and an all-star reenactment of the 1957 obscenity trial is solid, but the decision to visualize the poem using Eric Drooker’s phantasmagoric animations plays as kitsch. With Jon Hamm and David Strathairn. (90 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)

Last Train Home A miniature masterpiece of observation, Fan Lixin’s documentary examines the costs of China’s “economic miracle’’ on one family. Or what used to be one family: By the time this quietly heartbreaking saga of displacement and generational change has glided to a close, its members have scattered to the winds. In Mandarin, with subtitles. (87 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)

Let Me In An honorable remake of the 2008 Swedish film “Let the Right One In,’’ about a bullied boy and the vampire girl next door, but there’s still no need for this movie to exist. Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Road’’) and Chloe (“Kick-Ass’’) Moretz are excellent in the leads, but overdirected visuals and cheap special effects make it a lesser beast. (115 min., R) (Ty Burr)

The Social Network David Fincher’s brilliantly assured, blithely fictionalized drama about the founding of Facebook is about belonging and wanting to belong. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay moves from Harvard to the geek battlefields of Silicon Valley with wide-ranging wit, and Jesse Eisenberg comes of age playing Mark Zuckerberg as a sort of Charles Foster Kane with Asperger’s. With Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake. (121 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

South of the Border Oliver Stone travels to seven South American countries plus Cuba to interview presidents, including Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and to offer an alternative view on the region’s politics and politicians. Stone crucifies the mainstream media and America’s entanglements, but his calculated approach and clunky narration make us feel the sharpness of his axe to grind. (78 min., unrated) (Ethan Gilsdorf)

Waiting for “Superman’’ Davis Guggenheim’s public-school-system documentary doesn’t feel exploitative the way it might in another disaster movie. The filmmakers don’t need to put down the camera to hand the thirsty a cup of water or the drowning a ride in the helicopter. On some level, the movie is that cup of water, part of a solution. It’s meant to infuriate you and break your heart enough so that you feel compelled to do something. (102 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Woody Allen’s 40th feature gives us a handful of frustrated people in London, and it’s shopworn to the bone. The central concerns are trust, fraudulence, reversed fortune, and mortality. But it all lacks tension. With Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch, Freida Pinto, and Antonio Banderas. (98 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

An archive of movie reviews can be found at www.boston.com/movies. Theaters are subject to change.