Films in brief: Alps, People Like Us, The Joy of Six, Mother's Milk People Like Us 12A cert, 114 min Two stars Chris Pine's alpha obnoxiousness, even when deliberate, goes a long way to render this prodigal-son drama unappetising. Dragged back to his dad's funeral in the midst of professional crisis, he finds the half-sister (Elizabeth Banks) he never knew he had, but doesn't let on. The long-deferred truth bomb remains a maddening dramatic device at the best of times, and Alex Kurtzman's banal therapeutic exercise is very much not the best of times. As Pine's angry mom, Michelle Pfeiffer acts a bit and pouts a lot. The Joy of Six 15 cert, 79 min Three Stars Matthew Holness's melancholic, hallucinatory farce A Gun for George is the jewel in this showcase of British short films. Mother's Milk 15 cert, 98 min Edward St Aubyn adapts his 2006 novel about filial acrimony in Provence as only an author can: with a crippling reverence for the original text. The ever-chuntering narration, nicely read as it is by Tom Hollander, crushes everything in its path. If the words on the page were that indispensable, why not just record an audiobook? Aurora 12A cert, 183 min Three stars Cristi Puiu's Dostoyevskian parable about post-Communist malaise in Bucharest tails a bitter divorcé and father of two, played by the director, who unexpectedly becomes a serial killer. It's an intellectual wheeze, but too chilly to connect. Grassroots Stephen Gyllenhaal's chronically unappealing political comedy is based on a real-life David and Goliath confrontation in the 2001 Seattle city council election. You'll root for the giant all the way. Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan PG cert, 97 min A shallow, fannish tribute to the stop-motion master who made The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.