Danish journalist and documentarian Mads Brüggers has no intention of hiding behind his notebook or camera.

Part Michael Moore and part Sacha Baron Cohen, Brüggers in his earlier film, “Red Chapel,” talked his way into secretive North Korea by pretending to be the manager of a Korean-Danish theatrical troupe committed to radical political theater.

He puts himself front and center -- often clad in knee-high polished boots, a safari jacket and wielding a cigarette holder -- in “The Ambassador,” his intriguing documentary about corruption in Africa.

Brüggers' plan is to investigate the illegal conflict diamond trade and the role played by unscrupulous diplomats and government officials in Africa. To do so, he forks over $100,000-plus to a shady European broker so he can be credentialed as a Liberian diplomat to the tiny,...

When it comes to mining a medical malady for laughs across multiple platforms, standup comic Mike Birbiglia is a master.

He has already spun a standup routine, a segment on the radio show “This American Life,” an autobiographical book and a one-man off-Broadway show out of the sleep disorder from which he suffers. Now he uses it as a central plot point in “Sleepwalk With Me,” a beguiling romantic comedy.

Birbiglia, 34, has been diagnosed as having Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Disorder. It is a severe form of sleepwalking in which the sufferer, while still deep in the arms of Morpheus, rises to act out his or her dreams. This can be dangerous; Birbiglia once jumped through a glass window in his second-story hotel room to escape a missile that was heading toward him in a dream, an incident he uses in the movie.

In the semi-autobiographical...

One of the scariest sentences someone can utter to a spouse or partner is: “My family is coming.”

That’s exactly what happens in “2 Days in New York,” when Marion (Julie Delpy) tells Mingus (Chris Rock), her live-in beau in a New York City apartment, that her father and sister are arriving from Paris for a visit.

Scary, yes, but also the pivot point for the amusing angst, misunderstandings and spats that follow in this delightful, breezy comedy from Delpy, who serves triple duty here as co-writer, director and star.

The film is a sequel to the French actress’ 2007 comedy, “2 Days in Paris,” though it stands up just fine by itself, and you don...

There’s a reason Matthew McConaughey’s character wears a black Stetson in “Killer Joe,” a self-knowingly sleazy crime drama that’s simultaneously repellant and enjoyable.

His is no white-hat role, and both he and the movie are the better for it.

McConaughey is in the midst of a career revival, leaving behind the brainless, lightweight charmers he played in a string of flimsy romantic comedies to portray more complicated, morally challenged, middle-aged guys in films like “Magic Mike” and “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

He takes on his darkest role yet in “Joe,” playing with mesmerizing authority the title character, Killer Joe Cooper, a Dallas police detective who moonlights as a hit man.

“Killer Joe” is set deep in trailer-park territory. Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch), a would-be drug dealer...