This Weekend At The Movies

The Harry Potter films have been so reliably good that they put most other studio franchises to shame. Never has this been as glaring as these past few months, during which Hollywood has unleashed one of its worst summer rosters in recent memory.

It’s been 10 years since director Chris Columbus debuted “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which had a certain – for lack of a better word – magic and innocence to it.

Seven films later, the series ends on a much darker and more somber note with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.” Beloved characters meet their ends. Sections of Hogwarts are reduced to rubble. And the film’s characters, many of whom were children at the beginning of the series, are now on the verge of adulthood.

The films, based on J.K. Rowling’s novels, have captured moviegoers’ imaginations not only through CGI-induced wizardry, but also by allowing audiences to watch Harry, Hermione and Ron grow into their characters.

And it helps that the series has been populated by some of Britain’s top thespians: Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Timothy Spall, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Imelda Staunton and the late Richard Harris.

At this point, there should be no need to recap the final film’s storyline. Harry must finally face off against the dark lord Voldemort (a wickedly good Ralph Fiennes). Of course, secrets are divulged, romances kindled and character arcs reached.

“Deathly Hallows Part 2” culminates with a lovely coda during which several of the film’s characters meet at a locale instrumental to the series to send off the next generation of wizards. It’s a nice way to bring this decade-long story to a close.

Truth is stranger than fiction or, at least, that is the case with two new documentaries – “Tabloid” and “Project Nim,” both of which are set in the 1970s.

“Tabloid,” directed by Errol Morris (“The Fog of War and “The Thin Blue Line”), chronicles the strange, sordid tale of former Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney, who was arrested and imprisoned after she was alleged to have kidnapped a Mormon missionary with whom she was obsessed and forced him to have sex.

McKinney claims she and Kirk Anderson, who is not interviewed for the film, had previously been in a relationship and that he agreed to flee his religion, run away with her and get married.

Spanning nearly 30 years, McKinney’s tale includes kidnapping, a jail sentence, nude modeling, a wooded seclusion and – I kid you not – the cloning of her beloved dog Booger by a South Korean scientist.

But Morris, whose subjects have included everything from a pet cemetery to Robert S. McNamara, is not just going for cheap laughs at the expense of a peculiar character.

The film, which is modeled after “Rashomon” includes varied takes on the tale from a cast of characters that includes former journalists who covered McKinney’s story. But rather than illuminate, each story obscures the truth until it is difficult to determine whether McKinney is an eccentric with a delirious tale to tell, a performance artist seeking an additional 15 minutes of fame or a little of both.

Equally odd, but slightly more tragic, is James Marsh’s “Project Nim,” which follows the 26-year-story of the titular chimpanzee, who was snatched from his mother as an infant and forced to take part in a groundbreaking scientific project.

Nim’s travels lead him from the Manhattan apartment of a wealthy hippie couple, who try to raise the chimp as a child, to a Riverdale mansion where he is taught to communicate with his adoring teachers via sign language, a pharmaceutical animal testing laboratory and, finally, a Texas ranch created with an aim of protecting animals.

During the course of the film, we learn a little bit about chimpanzee behavior and significantly more about human nature. Some of the film’s subjects obviously have good intentions, while those of others are more nebulous.

“Project Nim” bears some significance to Robert Bresson’s classic “Au Hazard Balthazar,” in which a cast of characters' lives is centered around a particularly tragic donkey. In both films, it is often easier to sympathize with those who walk on four legs.