Life as an “Interquel”

An '80s nostalgia trip, a Vin Diesel comeback and a goat herder rom-com are new this week.

“Fast and Furious”
Much more of this mindless how-to crash course in auto-irresponsibility and “Police Academy” might find itself bested for the title of the most pointlessly ongoing franchise ever, with this latest installment called an “interquel” — they have to invent words to justify this thing’s existence! — set between parts two and three. Original star Vin Diesel, who can’t get arrested in Hollywood these days, lines up alongside fellow returnees Michelle Rodriguez (who apparently can, with alarming regularity), Jordana Brewster and Paul Walker for a story that sees our distrusting principles drawn back together in L.A. to face down a dangerous common enemy.
Opens wide.

“Forbidden Lie$”
While things like greed and incompetence in the financial sector make regular folk pretty angry, the duping of Oprah and her book club by author James Frey in 2006 evidenced that lying about made up shit in your book seemingly triggers an outpouring of untapped white-hot rage. Hot on the trail of another such teller of tall tales, Aussie documentary filmmaker Anna Brionowski confronts alleged Jordanian author Norma Khouri, who turned out to be Norma Bagain, a wanted fugitive of Chicago, who while on the run from the FBI orchestrated one of the great literary crimes of the century. Bagain concocting a fake identity, complete with a harrowing (if wholly fabricated) story to accompany it, fooling the entire publishing industry, and turning it into a bestseller.
Opens in New York; LA release: Apr. 10

“Gigantic”
If Charlie Kaufman’s East Coast-anchored stream of consciousness had invaded the dreams of Diablo Cody while she was writing “Juno,” the result might just have been something akin to “Gigantic,” the irrepressibly chatty yet irreverently offbeat debut from director Matt Aselton. Acting as though he’s permanently attached to an invisible drip-feed of Demerol, Paul Dano plays Brian, an unaffected mattress salesman considered an afterthought to his parents in the wake of the wild success of his siblings. Hoping to share his one and only dream of adopting a Chinese baby with eccentric customer Harriet (Zooey Deschanel), Brian must first win over her mildly unhinged father Al (John Goodman).
Opens in New York.

“Paris 36”
Sentimental French helmer Christophe Barratier drafts in Eastwood’s regular DP Tom Stern to help him restage this delightfully faithful musical pastiche of fuzzy populist nostalgia that was everything the New Wave later railed against. Almost vaudevillian in its vast, rapid fire, rotation of subplots, “Paris 36” (referring to the year the film is set) centers on the efforts of Germain Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot of “Les Choristes”), a stagehand who finds himself without his star attraction and a home when his cackling ex-wife reclaims their accordion-playing son and a local kingpin takes hold of his theater, leaving him to join forces with a group of workers and performers to save the building by occupying it and putting on a show themselves. In French with subtitles.
Opens in New York and Los Angeles.

“Song of Sparrows”
From director Majid Majidi, Iran’s most recent entry to the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language category contrasts the strong communal bond and harmony of family practiced by the rural underprivileged with the impersonal and spiritually eroding hustle and bustle of inner-city Tehran. Having been fired from his job as an ostrich wrangler after one of his feathered wards escapes, dutiful family man Karim (Reza Naji) commutes to the city seeking money for his daughter’s broken hearing aid. Inexplicably mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver, Karim operates a makeshift business ferrying city folk back and forth but finds their attitude taking a heavy toll on his good-natured disposition. In Persian with subtitles.
(Opens in New York)

“Sugar”
In much the same way soccer is regarded in Africa and South America, the people of the tiny Dominican Republic regard baseball as not just as a sport but a passport to a better life in other parts of the world. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck follow up the critically acclaimed “Half Nelson” by tracing the journey of one such prospect in a quietly affecting, decidedly non-traditional ballad of a small island boy trying to make good. Algenis Perez Soto stars as Miguel “Sugar” Santos, marooned in middle America after rising through the ranks of the Dominican baseball academy, only to battle the language barrier, injuries and a suffocating disconnect with the world around him as he struggles to maintain a grip on his dream. In Spanish with subtitles.
Opens in limited release.

“Tulpan”
Having garnered some serious acclaim from both the Asian and European festival circuits, Kazakh-born Sergey Dvortsevoy’s naturally radiant tale of romance and perseverance earns itself a well-deserved theatrical run. Possessing both great beauty and great humor, this remarkably endearing romantic comedy sets itself against the backdrop of a disappearing way of life amidst the harsh Kazakh plains. Recently discharged Asa (Askhat Kuchencherekov) returns to his father’s goat farm to assume the role of head of the household. After being informed that there will be no transfer of goats until he gets himself wed, Asa sets about courting the only girl for (literally) miles around, the enigmatic and almost entirely unseen Tulpan, who sadly is very far from interested. In Kazakh and Russian with subtitles.
Opens in New York.

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