In The Dark Knight Rises, someone tells Bruce Wayne that suffering builds character. When the title card finally flashes after an unremitting 164-minute running time, Wayne has built more character than any man should. Director Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Batman saga is powerful entertainment; by fusing the superhero genre with noir, Nolan raises the stakes to a massive degree. The battle for Gotham’s soul is downright apocalyptic, and the screenplay is at its best when it gives Batman an abyss into which he must fall.

Klown is a Danish buddy movie, a surreal, caustic romp that can plausibly claim both Todd Phillips and James Dickey as spiritual forefathers. The proceedings involve a fair amount of questionable moral and genital behavior, as well as a healthy portion of male and female nudity. To wit: a sex comedy. Far from indulging in a straightforward raunch-fest, though, Klown pulls off the trickier feat of couching its laughs in a bold and cynical critique of modern masculinity.

Emad Burnat filmed five years (2005-2010) of Bil’in’s nonviolent resistance to Israeli settlement and military occupation. He bought his first camera to film the infancy of his fourth son. Later, he filmed as the army unloaded round after round of tear gas canisters into peaceful gatherings. He filmed as his village lost its land. He filmed as settlers beat up protesting villagers. He filmed as children were pulled from their homes in the middle of the night and arrested. He filmed as boys were murdered. He filmed as men were murdered. He filmed as Bil’in’s olive trees were burned down.

With Dogtooth, his first internationally celebrated film, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos announced himself as one of the more fascinating directors working today. That film, TMT’s favorite of 2010, an astonishing investigation of human development couched in a father’s deranged need to hide his offspring from a modern world he both abhors and fears.

Family Portrait in Black and White, a film by Julia Ivanova, documents the family of Olga Nenya, a Ukrainian woman raising 23 foster children, 16 of whom are biracial. In present-day Ukraine, where prejudices remain and welfare infrastructure is nonexistent, Olga and her children rally against the challenges and inequities of their conditions. And, more interestingly, chafe against each other.

Director Adam Sherman’s latest film is a joyless mess, content to pointlessly meander through a series of barely connected, excruciatingly shallow and — most damning — benignly offensive booze-soaked adventures. Written by four different people including Sherman himself, Crazy Eyes lacks the cohesion necessary to effectively tell the trite story it wants to. Whereas a more experimental feature might actually benefit from such a frenetic and disjointed narrative, this film winds up seeming like a half-assed ode to being a drunken rich lecher (and not in a good way).