'Reel Paradise'

(4 stars)

Austin film buffs who haven't yet gotten chummy with our new neighbor John Pierson (the legendary indie figure who relocated here last year) have a perfect opportunity with "Paradise," which chronicles his family's yearlong experience in Fiji. The Piersons took over "the world's most remote movie theater," showing Hollywood blockbusters for free to islanders who could never have afforded to pay. Cultures clashed a bit, partially because Papa Pierson is a self-described conflict magnet; his letting a lot of youngsters into "8 Mile" ("honest, guys, I didn't know Eminem would do anything naughty!") didn't help matters. As depicted by documentarian Steve James ("Hoop Dreams"), the Piersons/Islanders relationship is as engrossing as the dynamics within the family, where two teenage children raise the usual issues in a setting that's anything but normal.

6 p.m. March 14 at the Paramount, 4 p.m. March 18 at the Alamo Downtown.

— John DeFore

'The Self-Made Man'

(3 stars)

Filmmaker Susan Stern's father, Bob, was larger than life — a self-made businessman, a virile husband, a demanding father. He was fierce about controlling his own life. When illness threatened that control, he became intent on ending his life, approaching the decision with a businessman's logic. He makes his case to his family on videotapes made for his family, holding forth with eerie matter-of-factness. This documentary drags in sections, but the literary scope of Bob Stern's life sustains interest.

1:45 p.m. March 14, Dobie; 11:30 a.m. March 16, Alamo South; 11:30 a.m. March 18, Austin Convention Center.

— Sarah Lindner

'Childstar'

(2 stars)

Writer-director-actor Don McKellar's 1998 film "Last Night," about the world ending in a very low-key Canadian way, is a weirdly sweet and sad gem. There are flashes of the same loopy poignance in "Childstar," but they get lost in a meandering movie. McKellar's Rick is a hapless filmmaker who ends up chauffeuring American child actor Taylor (Mark Rendall), who's in Canada to shoot a movie. The premise manages to be both conventional (the kid asks Rick for life lessons) and annoyingly insidery, taking easy shots at Hollywood. Despite both endearing and laugh-out-loud funny moments, "Childstar" is a disappointment.

9:15 p.m. March 14 at the Alamo Downtown, 11 a.m. March 17 and 11 a.m. March 19 at the Paramount.

— S.L.

'Kissing on the Mouth'

(1 star)

This pitifully transparent, would-be sex shocker is masturbatory in more ways than the one shown full monty on screen (by the movie's director, no less, who seems oblivious to the implied message of his solitary deed). Director-writer Joe Swanberg attempts a documentary depiction of sex that is so matter-of-fact and natural — he and his collegiate co-stars casually undress, slip on condoms, shave nether regions, take (many) showers and perform gropy intercourse — that it achieves an embarrassing state of clinical blech, which Swanberg mistakes for artistic courage. Shot in woozy verité (the camera moves like a bobblehead) and slathered in pseudo-insights, "Kissing on the Mouth" circles its boy-girl issues, missing every emotional note or anything concrete. Its holographic characters loiter about a nonexistent story whose ideas are so callow and inarticulate, you have to wince.

4 p.m. March 14 and 2 p.m. March 18, Dobie.

— Chris Garcia