Oh we can talk about this documentary or that indie, but this weekend is all about The Hunger Games : Mockingjay Part I. And rightly so, because Jennifer Lawrence is pretty goddamn fantastic in it, to the point where I actually started to care about this series for the first time ever.

Honestly, I’ve spent seven hours in this world and I still don’t give a damn about it … but Lawrence is a force of nature, and finally gets to do more than just look noble or angry. Susan liked the movie around her, too.

Also opening this week: An indie and a documentary. And some other stuff.

Hermitage Revealed: Is this a documentary about the venerated art museum, or a glorifed promotional video? Glenn suggests it is the latter, and not a very good one.

The Homesman: Tommy Lee Jones directs himself and Hilary Swank (and a few other notable talents) in a messy but compelling frontier drama that feels of a piece with Meek’s Cutoff, oddly enough.

Low Down: Having bounced around the release schedule for a few weeks, Jeff Preiss’ modest character piece — starring John Hawkes and Elle Fanning as a co-dependent father and daughter in 1970s Los Angleles — finally opens. So that’s nice.

Point and Shoot: Marshall Curry’s latest documentary is a penetrating psychological study of a man who doesn’t know he’s being studied. Which is kind of amazing.

Also, Mike Nichols died yesterday and I wrote some words about him for NOW. He’ll be missed.