2 Days in Paris After 20 years of trying unsuccessfully to get her screenplays made, Julie Delpy finally got her chance to direct this one by tricking her financiers into thinking it was a romantic comedy about a French woman and an American man in Paris. It's actually the romance from hell which makes it so much more interesting. The film may seem familiar, with its manic, walking-and-talking rhythms reminiscent of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in the 1970s. But you never know where it's going, which is one of the film's greatest pleasures. The other is the longtime actress' way with dialogue it's raw and real, bitingly funny and blissfully unsentimental. Delpy is radiantly lovely as Marion, a ditzy Parisian photographer who brings her longtime boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg), a neurotic interior designer, home to see her parents for a couple of days on the way back to New York from a European vacation. Everything slowly, painfully goes wrong, from the way her cramped apartment smells to the language barrier that isolates Jack to the old boyfriends of Marion's they run into, who serve as a simmering source of jealousy and insecurity. R for sexual content, some nudity and language. 96 minutes. Three stars out of four. Christy Lemire

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Rocket Science Jeffrey Blitz knows adolescent angst. Having directed 2002's Spellbound, the charming, Oscar-nominated documentary about the kids who train for the National Spelling Bee, he makes his feature debut with this small gem about the overachieving misfits who populate a New Jersey high school debate competition. One in particular the goofy, gangly Hal Hefner, who can barely get through his resolution because his stutter is so paralyzing is based on Blitz's own stuttering problem growing up. Maybe because the material is so personal, or maybe because he just has a great ear, writer-director Blitz never condescends to his characters in the manner of Napoleon Dynamite or Eagle vs. Shark, two independent comedies to which Rocket Science has been compared. He's created full, complex people and placed them in relatable, unpredictable situations and, for the most part, resists the urge to get sentimental. As Hal, Reece Daniel Thompson makes an easy underdog to root for once the fiercely articulate Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) invites him to join the debate team. Vincent Piazza, Nicholas D'Agosto and Aaron Yoo are among the strong supporting cast. R for some language and sexual material. 98 minutes. Three stars. Christy Lemire