Robert De Niro’s father was a respected artist who, according to the HBO documentary Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr., never got the recognition he deserved. His son talks frankly about their checkered relationship. For the reticent, diffi cult-to-interview actor, this must’ve been an ordeal, though it should bring his father posthumous recognition.

Gore Vidal lived an amazing, productive life, which is memorialized in Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia. This candid appraisal includes Vidal’s interviews, book signings, debates, and reminiscences of friends.

His TV jousts with conservative William F. Buckley and writer Norman Mailer were legendary, and still resonate. Most surprising is his assessment of the Kennedy presidency as a failure, given his membership in the Bouvier family. Though a defeated congressional candidate, Vidal was an astute political observer whose The Best Man is one of the most powerful books (also a play and a movie) on American politics ever written. Vidal, who died at 86 in 2012, loathed his mother but adored his grandfather, who raised him. He thus proclaimed: “Never have children. Only grandchildren.”

Tim Robbins, Joanne Woodward, Sting, and the late writer Christopher Hitchens all recount Vidal’s intellectually stimulating parties. Robbins, especially, shows a fan’s amazement when he recalls learning of the A-list guests invited.

“I’m a born-again atheist,” Vidal once proclaimed—typical of his cynical outlook on life. He also observed, “A writer must always tell the truth, but a politician must never give the game away”—possibly a reference to his friend Mikhail Gorbachev, of all people. Most typical of Vidal’s biting wit is his assessment of fellow writer Truman Capote: “He’s spent his life trying to get into the society I’ve spent my life trying to escape.” “Envy,” he said, “is the central face of American life.” Sure, he was a cynic, but also a skeptic whose screenplays, like that for Myra Breckinridge, broke new ground. This fi lm is a tribute to one of the most fascinating men of his time.

In Filth, Scottish actor James McAvoy gives a powerful performance as an Edinburgh detective who knows he’s the most qualifi ed aspirant for a promotion. But he’s his own worst enemy. He believes if he can solve the murder of a Japanese student, his marriage will be saved and he can see his daughter again. Taken from the novel by Irvine Welsh, who wrote Trainspotting, this is a study of a man coming apart, helpless to stop his demise. Drugs and drink are his demons, and he often loses control of his emotions. Oscar winner Jim Broadbent plays his psychiatrist, saddled with the impossible task of keeping the patient from going mad. The fact that he dresses as his former wife on occasion adds so many layers to his twisted psyche that it’s clear his road to redemption will be a long and tortured one.

There’s nothing unusual about Cohen Media Group’s Chinese Puzzle. It has all the elements you’d expect from a French romantic movie: likeable characters, various romantic entanglements, and a very attractive cast. What sets it apart is its locations, mostly in the West Village and other parts of New York. Though it begins in Paris, it deals with a marriage about to hit the rocks between a French father and an English mother. Romain Duris is Xavier, the protagonist. Kelly Reilly, currently starring on the new show Black Box, gets divorced and moves with their children to New York, having found an American lover. The father, a novelist, soon follows to be nearer his children. What ensues is a complicated, fast-paced series of entanglements, immigration issues, a tiny apartment in Manhattan’s teeming Chinatown, several marriages, and the arrival of an old girlfriend played by the luminous Audrey Tautou.

Others in the cast of note include Belgian actress Cécile de France as the father’s lesbian best friend, Sandrine Holt as her signifi cant other, Peter Hermann as the new American in Xavier’s ex’s life, and veteran character actor Jason Kravits (perfectly cast as a bargain-basement attorney). Life is indeed complicated, the movie says, but only if you let it be.

HBO’s The Normal Heart is a look back to the early 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was beginning to unfold. Mark Ruffalo stars in this autobiographical story by Larry Kramer, the activist-writer who was one of the first to sound the alarm. Based on the off- Broadway production at the Public Theater, the play has been produced in Los Angeles and London, and on Broadway three years ago. Julia Roberts costars as a wheelchairbound physician who suspects sexual activity is the transmitter. As the story unfolds, the politics of the time are faithfully reproduced. This was one of the most signifi cant dramas about the AIDS crisis, and this small-screen version has lost none of its impact.

Finally, For No Good Reason is a documentary from Sony Pictures Classics about Ralph Steadman, the artist whose unique style has had a cult following for years. His relationship with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who is seen in clips, was a major influence on him and Johnny Depp, the narrator. (Depp portrayed Thompson’s autobiographical character in the film version of his great book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.)

The film is the result of 15 years of research by director Charlie Paul, and fans of Steadman’s work have something to cheer about in this original, provocative doc.

 [HS]