Capsules by Michael Sragow. Full reviews are at baltimoresun.com/movies.
American Teen: **** This documentary about a handful of high school seniors in Warsaw, Ind., shows how even teens who superficially fit the labels of jock and geek have inner lives and outer ambitions that break up any stereotypes. The movie has the sureness and nuance of a tiptop novel. PG-13 95 minutes
Elegy: *** An aging critic and academic (Ben Kingsley) sees an intoxicatingly beautiful student (Penelope Cruz) as his last chance for ecstasy; Kingsley is miscast, but Cruz and the supporting players (Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard and Dennis Hopper) are superb. R 107 minutes
Hamlet 2 : *** 1/2 The drama coach at a Tucson high school tries to save his program by mounting the wildly ambitious Hamlet 2 - like The Godfather Part II, both a sequel and a prequel to a work of genius. Ace British comic actor Steve Coogan gets his best chance so far to strut his smart-silly stuff in an American movie, and he nails it; he creates a character whose exuberance knows no limits. Neither does his bad taste. R 92 minutes
Hellboy II: The Golden Army : *** Guillermo del Toro designs this follow-up to his 2004 Hellboy as a battle between the magical and fearsome creatures who roamed J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and C.S. Lewis' Narnia and a handful of agents from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, including the burly red demon Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Del Toro stuffs the film with wit and wonderments. Yet, it often plays like a lovingly crafted synthesis of the superhero and fantasy sagas we've been seeing all decade, and especially this summer. PG-13 120 minutes
Man on Wire: **** This documentary pays tribute to the high-wire walker Philippe Petit, who in 1974 plotted and executed a plan to walk between the tops of the World Trade Center's twin towers. Thanks to the suspenseful, sensuous direction of James Marsh, Petit's accomplishment registers, in its own balletic way, as potently as King Kong climbing to the top of the Empire State Building - and Petit doesn't fall off. PG-13 90 minutes
Tell No One : **** On the eighth anniversary of his wife's abduction and apparent murder, a Paris-based pediatrician (Francois Cluzet) receives an e-mail containing a link to a video Web site where he thinks he spots her alive. The e-mail comes with the warning "tell no one," because people will be watching. The movie, like its hero, is shrewd about the small lies and mini-corruptions that can lead to major crimes. Unrated 125 minutes
