Movie mini-reviews: 'Higher Ground,' 'Bellflower'

Higher Ground

Vera Farmiga's directorial debut is one of the most thoughtful and brave movies about religion ever made. We never once feel as if we're trapped in some theology lecture; we feel as if we're living, learning and stumbling right alongside the lead character, an upstate-New York wife and mother, played beautifully by Farmiga. Based on a memoir by Carolyn Briggs called This Dark World, Higher Ground explores faith as most people experience it and understand it, as a constant push and pull, a construct that eludes us every time we think we have it figured out. At the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Briggs, who also co-wrote the screenplay, will be in attendance at Sunday's 2 p.m. screening at the Modern. Christopher Kelly

Bellflower

Friends Woodrow and Aiden are the first couple in this buzzed-about wonder that screened in January in the lowest-budget category at the Sundance Film Festival. Of the buddies, Aiden (Tyler Dawson) is the rather crazed id. Woodrow, portrayed by director Evan Glodell, seems a bit like the proverbial nice guy. At a bar-sponsored contest that recalls the insect-eating challenges of Fear Factor, Woodrow is bested by Milly (Jessie Wiseman). It's a dystopian romance's version of meeting cute. Indeed, the wondrous thing about Bellflower is its use of the threat of apocalypse in the realm in which the catastrophic so often happens: our romantic lives. Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post