Fear Me Not ties a mid-life crisis to an addiction to psychotropic medications. As Mikael, bored with his day-to-day routine decides to become a medical guinea pig, he explores his new found passions in ways that are not entirely appropriate.

The film is starkly shot, with Ulrich Thomsen's Mikael a "Jekyl and Hyde" menace throughout. While the conclusion is less satisfying than the setup, it's still a darkly stylish flick, yet another cinematic wonder coming from Denmark.

Last seen in Sharkwater, this time the crew of the pirate ship "Sea Shepherd" are trolling through Antarctica, looking to disrupt the Japanese whaling fleet. Using tactics at best described as hostile, they are striving to end the whaling in these international waters, using any means at their disposal (including the infamous "can opener" welded to their side, meant to rip open enemy ships).

In this meandering doc, however, we see an eager, zealot-like crew hankering for conflict, but quick to sniffle in the face of danger. Rising the pirate flag, they still expect the maritime code to be upheld in times of distress. It's all a bit polemical and boring, in the end, but there are enough pretty visuals of the Arctic to almost make the journey worthwhile.

If you're going to follow a bunch of inner city kids as they attend a "white" school, and going to follow them for several years, make sure one of them is Lebron James.

Set in Akron, Ohio, we see this group of kids grow and bond as they achieve success and suffer failure. Sure, it's the stuff of many a sports doc, but this one has a particular edge because of the subject. By following this phenom and his compatriots as they rise in basketball stature, we see what's required (or absent) in trying to ground these kids through the travails of high school and the sport they play.

This is a feel good story, and lacks some of the scope and drama of Hoop Dreams, but it's a remarkable tale providing a joyous look at some great nascent basketball from the man who would be called "King James".

A gay adoption story set in Sweden, hardly the stuff of normal romantic comedies. Still, this quirky little film, has a comma causing a clerical error (much, it seems, like in Brazil), resulting in the couple adopting a 15 year old delinquent instead of an 18-month old.

Certainly this could have been a cloying, saccharine mess, but the performances hold up very well, the emotions seem real, and the conflicts are genuine and believable. Sure, it's all going to work out in the end somehow, but it's an ending well deserved, and few easy ways are taken to threaten the verisimilitude.

Last time he was in town, Director Prachya Pinkaew brought the Uptown to ecstasy with Ong Bak. Many (myself included) were ignorant of the Thai school of martial arts, a mix of kicking, elbowing and punching that looked far from the swooping wire-work fight choreography that Hong Kong cinema had been exporting for decades. Quite simply, Ong Bak proved to be a legendary screening at MM.

Cut to five years later, and we have another film to enjoy, this one eschewing Tony Jaa in favour of a young girl, Jeeja Yanin. The story this time round is even more convoluted, as the daughter of a Thai crimelord has an illicit affair with a member of the Yakuza. Their love child is "special", exhibiting an autistic-like developmental challenge that results in stilted communication, but with the added ability of near superhuman reflexes. She learns to fight by watching the neighboring boxing school, and, naturally, watching Ong Bak and The Protector on video tape. The hand off from the previous success to the new film is by no means subtle nor apologetic, but it's a charming moment, and went over extremely well at the screening.

This ridiculous plot is of course mere fodder for action sequences galore. As the daughter works with her sidekick friend to recoup money for her mother's chemotherapy, we are introduced to set piece after set piece, with a line of "bosses" needed to be beaten in order to progress to the next level. It all has the feeling of a 1980s video game, complete with an astounding final sequence that borrows liberally from the geography of Donkey Kong.

All of this would be a terrible mess were it not for a charismatic turn by the lead (who does well not playing "full retard", to paraphrase Robert Downey Jr.'s non-PC rant in Tropic Thunder), along with spectacular, spine shattering stunt work. Fights take place in a number of exotic locales, kicking ass in an ice factory, a pork processing plant, and the aforementioned chutes-and-ladders Kong setup. The pace is furious, and the moves look legitimately like they'd be painful to perform, let alone impossible to survive if done with a complete lack of safety equipment. This onslaught of action, complete with wacky, over the top characters (the "ladymen" in particular are a hoot) make for a hell of a flick.

As the credits roll, on-set footage of the injuries is presented. Ice pack after ice pack is applied, giant gashes sewn up, and some stunt performers are carried away in neck braces. These are stunts not for the faint hearted, but the visceral nature of the flick certainly makes these sacrifices come to life. If Pinkaew continues to escalate his game, he'll always be welcomed by the rapturous Toronto Midnight Madness crowd, the safety of his stunt performers be damned!