Unlike “Borat” which exploits similar stereotypes along the same leitmotiv (there’s the civilized West and then there’s everyone else), “Four Lions” manages to get several points across. In addition to lampooning jihadists for what they are, “Four Lions” pokes fun at xenophobia and chauvinism, too. And by doing so, director Chris Morris succeeds in exorcising the film of its risque subject matter far more effectively than had its story had been reduced to a one-dimensional, laugh-a-minute premise.

Iranian cinema is about to get a whole lot more interesting with Asghar Farhadi’s “Nader & Simin: A separation,” which in theory should be shown in limited release in about two months in the U.S.

Shot in semi-clandestinity in Tehran, it tells the tale of a couple, on the verge of separation, who are ripped apart by a parent’s Alzheimer’s disease and a caretaker hired to help him make it through the debilitating disease. Class differences and the slow disintegration of the couple’s life seem to be the order of the day in this narrative.

“Submarine,” directed by Richard Ayoade and adapted by him from Joe Dunthorne’s novel, is a bittersweet British comedy in the deadpan vein of “Harold and Maude” and “Rushmore.” Like those two films, it features a shaggy-haired, never-smiling teenage protagonist (Craig Roberts) who loves himself unconditionally but bewilders most others—including his parents. Trying to woo an aloof female classmate, for instance, he mumbles such precocious, ahead-of-his-years things as “Here’s to us and a wonderful evening of lovemaking.” The film, which also stars Noah Taylor (“Flirting,” “Shine”), Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) and Paddy Considine (“Hot Fuzz”) opens Friday nationwide.

The soft-spoken Ayoade—who stars in the beloved British sitcom “The IT Crowd”—drew on Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, all lovers of deadly serious, affected youths, in developing his oddball hero. At a press conference last week in New York City, he mentioned “Taxi Driver’s” Travis Bickle as the character’s main influence, as both speak in “an uninflected voice-over, seeing the least important thing [that’s happening on-screen]. He’s an unreliable narrator, linguistically idiosyncratic.”

Ben Stiller received the script for “Submarine” and was asked by the Weinstein Company to be an executive producer. “I said, ‘What does that mean? Do we have to do anything?’ and they said we just had to support [Ayoade]. I liked the script and liked Richard’s other work, so we took a chance with it.”

Casting Roberts in the lead role was, Stiller and Ayoade agree, practically a no-brainer. “He’s like a young old man,” Stiller said.

“I’m not a terribly social person, so I want to work with who I like,” said Ayoade. “I don’t think I’d be the natural director for ‘The Bon Jovi Story.’”

Ayoade, who debuted as feature film director for “Submarine,” is currently working on an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella “The Double: A Petersburg Poem.”

(full review in Friday's edition)

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Rhys Ifans is a truly great actor who’s been relegated [...]

If Terrence Malick is a saint of cinema, then this is his holy lesson. Over a four-decade career, the mercurial American visionary has mastered absence and flowered a daunting mystery. After making one of the most impressive debuts in American film history, 1973’s "Badlands," he quit talking to the press. After the dreamy masterpiece "Days of Heaven" five years later, the perfectionist dipped a toe back in and quickly removed it. He then famously disappeared for twenty years.

Swathed in stunning cinematography, pieced together by mood and memory (rather than linear story), "The Tree of Life" is a radical contemplation of mystery. These mysteries take forms from childhood curiosities to cosmic riddles, stretching from the Big Bang to a fifties Texas family and on to the end of time.

Michael Phillips, the Chicago Tribune critic, calls The Tree of Life “an infinitely more forgiving 2001: A Space Odyssey.” Critics and viewers will find a natural similarity with "Tree"’s centerpiece, an already famous twenty minute pre-historic spectacular, sketching the origins of the universe and the planet Earth. Stars, cells, seas, volcanoes, trees, sharks, jellyfish and, yes, dinosaurs. This section, though, seems to be a critique of "2001" rather than agreement. If Kubrick were still with us, he might feel the need to reply.

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