OOOO Precious: Based on the novel by Sapphire, Directed by Lee Daniels, With Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey and Paula Patton. Clareece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is like a modern version of Job, in the ghetto: 16 years old and pregnant for the second time by her own father (she had her first baby, a daughter with Down syndrome, when she was 12), Precious lives in a walk-up in Harlem in 1987 with her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), who abuses her in every single imaginable way; she's obese, illiterate, unloved and shut off. And, over the course of Lee Daniels' movie, there's more in store for her. Exec-produced by Oprah and Tyler Perry, this is the real deal. (MK)

OOO Laughology, Documentary by Albert Nerenberg. A Toronto filmmaker goes on a world-wide quest to get his laugh back after he loses it, asking "Why, and what, makes people laugh?" Like Nerenberg's other docs, this one is made in collage style that incorporates archival stills, found footage and re-enactments to delve into the strange world of scientific research on laughter. The topic is undeniably fascinating and we get to witness Los Angeles' laughing Yogi, the site of a laughter epidemic in Tanzania, the "holy laughter" churches in middle America and the human "laughers" sought out for TV-sitcom laugh tracks. Still, a bit weird to spend an hour watching people laugh on screen. People look strange when they laugh. (MK)

OOOO The Road, Directed by John Hillcoat, With Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-Mcphee and Guy Pearce. An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy about the years following the end of the world as we know it, in which a man and his boy push a shopping cart slowly towards the sea in hope of a better life. The burned-out landscapes and cannibals in the post-American landscape are scary, but mostly it's the bleak, pessimistically hopeful tone that will stick with you. An understated adaptation that's faithful in tone but omits a couple of the most disturbing - and probably unfilmable - scenes from the book. (MK)

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, Directed by Troy Duffy, With Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus and Billy Connolly. Two brothers living quietly in Ireland with their father return to Boston to avenge the mob-murder of their beloved priest. 

Herb & Dorothy, Documentary directed by Megumi Sasaki. The story of how Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, built one of the most important art collections in history, proving that good art can be affordable and good curators don't have to have a PhD. 

Nuages sur la ville, Directed by Simon Galiero, With Jean Pierre Lefebvre, Robert Morin and Teo Spychalski. An aging, cynical writer faces the facts of the new millennium and where he fits in as an artist.   

New York, I Love You, Directed by Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes and more, With Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen. An anthology film weaving multiple stories from several different directors on the topic of love and life in New York City.

For theatres and showtimes, see Voir.ca's cinema listings.