Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

HAPPINESS NEVER COMES ALONE

Sacha and Charlotte meet by chance one rainy Paris night, jump into bed and fall in love — but the path to happiness in this French romantic comedy is lined with three demanding children, two clashing careers and one jealous ex-husband. Things happen. Lessons are learned about sacrifice and growing up and keeping your own identity intact in love. People fall down (a lot — this is a romcom that loves its physical comedy and sight gags). Sometimes things are clich , sure (this film is a tribute to the slapstick love stories of old Hollywood), but the chemistry between the two leads transcends that, for the most part.

Plays at 4 p.m. Aug. 27 and 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Movie Museum

MISTRESS AMERICA

Struggling, lonely college freshman Tracy (Lola Kirke) reaches out to her future stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), a vivacious caricature of a 20-something New Yorker who oozes hipness and metropolitan culture. Director Noah Baumbach rejoices in satirizing youth culture with a razor wit, but the at-times-vicious dialogue doesn’t always quite jive with the slapstick situations Tracy and Brooke wind up in, which in turn don’t quite match the questions about fiction and ethics that arise later. That’s not to say it’s not interesting — it’s always interesting — but the picture winds up feeling muddled. Like its heroines, Mistress America isn’t always sure what it wants to be.

Opens Aug. 28 at Kahala Theatre

TANGERINE

Two transgender prostitutes wind up on a violent quest for revenge one sunny day in Los Angeles. Sin-Dee Rella is out for blood when she learns that her boyfriend and pimp, Chester, has been cheating on her. Her best friend, Alexandra, advises restraint before heading out on her own quest, while cab driver Razmik cruises around in the background before his part in all this is made clear. It’s a frantic, enthralling amalgamation of action and montage, compassion and cruelty, giving voice to the too-often voiceless minorities. The film also boasts it was filmed entirely on iPhone 5s cameras, lending it a streetwise veneer of unpolished reality. Plays at 1 p.m. Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27 and Sept. 1, and 4 p.m. Aug. 30 at Doris Duke Theatre