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

ART AND CRAFT

There’s something a little discomfiting about this documentary, which follows noted art forger Mark Landis as he produces and distributes the work of renowned artists (including Picasso, Louis Valtat and Daumier) to museums. It’s not that Landis’ activities are illegal — he’s giving his forgeries away for free — but that the man suffers from schizophrenia, and the film toes the line of almost-exploitative. Still, Landis’ brilliant forgeries are mesmerizing to watch unfold, as is Landis’ nemesis, Matt Leininger, a former museum curator, once fooled by Landis, now sworn to stop him. (Unrated)

Opens Dec. 5 at Kahala Theatre

HEAT AND DUST

A white woman in a relationship with an Indian man seems like much ado about nothing to modern ears, but this Merchant Ivory film paints a deft picture of how feminism and cultural attitudes change (or don’t change) over the course of decades. Though it entwines the parallel love affairs of Olivia (in the 1920s) and Anne (in the 1980s), the film has little time for romance, instead focusing on the grander portrait of India and all of the myriad contradictions and double standards women must navigate. (R) Plays 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and 1 p.m. Dec. 5 at Doris Duke Theatre

THE HOMESMAN

It looks like a Western and it sounds like a Western, but Tommy Lee Jones’ sophomore turn as director isn’t quite made in that old-timey vein. George Briggs (Jones) may fill the role of scraggy cowboy antihero, but it’s Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) who sets the wheels in motion by hiring him to transport three women, driven mad by pioneer life, back to civilization. The film’s noticeable but never overbearing feminist undertones keep things modern, even as the film dutifully pays homage to its frontier roots. It’s a breath of fresh air in a shrinking genre. (R) Opens Dec. 5 at Kahala Theatre