Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is stuck in the middle. Not only is he about to start his first day of middle school, but he’s tormented at home by his teenage brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) and his not-yet-potty-trained toddler brother Manny (Connor and Owen Fielding). He’s keenly aware that he has to move quickly to establish popularity, but he’s hampered by the fact that he’s one of the smallest kids in school and that his best friend is Rowley Jefferson (Robert Capron), a roly-poly kid with red hair in a bowl cut who just doesn’t get it.

Jeff Kinney’s bestseller was a novel-in-comic-strips. Director Thor Freudenthal (“Hotel for Dogs”) creates a structure for the film version by elevating the character’s desire to make it onto the yearbook’s “favorites” page to his main goal. This is why he joins the wrestling team. This is why he tries out for the school play. In each case, though, his strategy backfires, pushing him further and further from his aim of renown.

The 48-minute “Hubble 3D” brings the viewer inside an awe-inspiring vista of imagery and information. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and made with the cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the film quickly summarizes the initial struggles with the massive telescope — the challenges posed by the 1991 launch followed by the repair of a warped lens — before journeying on an IMAX 3-D tour well beyond our galaxy that combines the chronicles of several space shuttle missions.

Out past Sirius, the beautiful Orion Nebula contains a nursery of emerging stars, each with its own nascent solar system. These infant suns struggle to survive blasts of wind in excess of a million miles per hour spawned by their combined energies. Those winds blew a hole that parted the clouds of the nebula that allows us to get a glimpse into what the beginnings our own solar system must have been like.

Failed artists — more specifically, failed writers — play a central role in most of Noah Baumbach’s films. In “Greenberg,” native New Yorker Baumbach embraces that failure, portraying a particular breed of Los Angeles bohemians both at the start of adulthood and at the middle-age moment they realize their lives haven’t turned out the way they planned.

Although titled “Greenberg,” Baumbach’s latest, which he scripted with his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, starts with Florence (Greta Gerwig), a 25-year-old singer who makes her living working as a personal assistant for the Greenbergs in the Hollywood Hills. Uninsured and paid when her employers remember, she’s one of those economically vulnerable graduates who majored in the arts.

A director-producer-writer-performer in the mumblecore movement, Gerwig is wonderful in the part. Tall and curvy, she’s at once beautiful and awkward, a real-world woman who’s easy to root for. Still exploring the role her sexuality plays in her relationships with men, Florence is direct and sympathetic.

The film is a celebration of rock music’s finest visual artists tripping out on life, one poster at a time. Music posters are hand made to promote a music gig, usually given away, pasted to a wall or stapled to telephone poles. From the moment that posters are, well, posted, they become collectable art, iconic reminders of the music and good times.
“American Artifact” starts with a look back to the idyllic ‘60s in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, birthplace of the modern psychedelic rock poster. There’s a tribute to Rick Griffin, featuring his beautiful font work that made him a legend, a status he shares with his comrades Stanley Mouse and Victor Moscoso.
Then it's on to punk and grunge, inside the studios of rock-poster luminaries like Frank Kozik, Winston Smith, Art Chantry, Tara McPherson and a lot of talented folks whose works you’ve seen but whose names you probably don’t know.

Born into minor German aristocracy on May 2, 1892, Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was the most notable Flying Ace in WWI history. By the end of his life on April 21, 1918, his confirmed tally of downed aircraft marked 80, making him the supreme victor of aerial combat. Von Richthofen was also known for his brilliant air strategies and famed flying circus, both of which influence warfare today. The Freiherr, or Baron, began his career at the age of 11. By 1912, he was a Lieutenant in the cavalry. Childhood dreams and boredom in the trenches made him long to fly. In 1915, his wish came true, paving the way to Captain von Richthofen’s legendary course as The Red Baron.

Nikolai Müllerschön’s “The Red Baron” is the most recent attempt to cinematically resurrect the complex cult hero and introduce him to new generations. His ambitious, independently financed epic set against the hauntingly lush musical score of Dirk Reichardt deserves several standing ovations.

“MacGruber,” based on a recurring “SNL” sketch, is no “Wayne’s World.” But it’s not a complete dud, either — just an uneven series of slapstick jokes. In essence, the titular character (just one name, thank you) is a one-man, one-dimensional soldier-of-fortune cliché, along the lines of “MacGyver.” He can make a bomb with a tennis ball and a few other odds and ends (well, maybe) but doesn’t like to use a gun. He’s got every national honor possible and has served in pretty much every branch of the armed services. He’s also been declared dead for 10 years — ever since his arch rival, Dieter Von Cunth (played by Val Kilmer), blew up his bride-to-be at their nuptials. The primary problem with “MacGruber” is the lead, played by Will Forte, who simply has no big-screen presence, much less the kind of charismatic leadership that should come from even a fake MacGyver clone.

Jonathan Demme’s docu is a traveling exhibition of musical treasures collected over the course of Young’s career. Describing “Neil Young Trunk Show” as a “reaction” to 2006’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold,” Jonathan Demme revisits his friend and music icon in a follow-up that departs from his original film in cinematic approach and musical style, displaying a distinctly different side to the diverse singer-songwriter.

Whereas “Heart of Gold” was filmed at the storied Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., the heart of the country music industry, “Trunk Show” was recorded at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Penn. “Heart of Gold” was carefully staged for the cameras; “Trunk Show” was caught on the fly by handheld devices. “Heart of Gold” highlighted Young’s long-time friends and bandmates and featured dozens of performers; “Trunk Show” focuses on Young, lingering on his guitar and piano solos and long, improvisational jams. “Heart of Gold” presented Young’s acoustic folk/country persona; “Trunk Show,” electric rock.

The Weinstein label Dimension Films traded in its old horror-based hat this year for a softer, more encouraging film with “Hurricane Season.” The biopic portrays high school basketball coach Al Collins (Forest Whitaker) as he assembles a team of young men from the Katrina-ravaged streets of New Orleans and transforms them into the winners of the 2005-06 Louisiana State Championship.

Opening the film just a few days before Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, director Tim Story makes a far leap from his Queen Latifah comedy “Taxi” to present a cast of essential “under-dog-sports-film” characters, headed by Bow Wow and Jackie Long and including a bit part played by Lil’ Wayne. Katrina’s doom and gloom is showcased around every corner, including count-down title cards leading up to the big event; the hurricane itself is only implied at this point, fading quickly to heavy use of “floating corpse” stock footage to exaggerate the devastation.

There is much to love about “Elektra Luxx,” which is loosely the story of porn actresses who’ve left the biz. Elektra is – or was – the Jenna Jameson of her day, but has gotten pregnant and decided to go straight, and now teaches “How to be a porn star in the bedroom” classes at the local community college. Played by Carla Gugino, she’s an unlikely blonde but an even unlikelier heroine — confident with both her place in the world and her sexuality. The film itself was a hoot, if a somewhat disconnected one; inclusive not just of Elektra’s porn-film quality setups (she’s stranded in an elevator with a naked neighbor! There’s a case of mistaken identity with a stranger in an apartment!), odd striptease and musical numbers (sadly, Gugino needs to avoid singing again, though she’s grand playing Luxx's delinquent sister) and a reverent blogger trying to treat her career seriously.

Howard Marks lived a life that seems to combine “Catch Me If You Can” with the drug elements of “Goodfellas.” To tell his story would require a very deft screenwriter and director indeed. It would be a mistake to start at, say, his early school days, dwell a bit long on actually getting to Oxford, spend way too much time in Ireland and on the general joys of smoking joint upon joint and repeated copulations with his longtime girlfriend/eventual wife (Chloë Sevigny, with a wavering English accent) — and fail to further explore the logistics behind his 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 companies. It would also be a mistake to barely touch on just how it required a worldwide task force effort to finally catch him and bring him to justice. One would want someone with the Coen brothers’ facility with dark humor and madcap, surreal antics. Alas, Bernard Rose is no Coen brother.