In theaters: Canyons, Millers and Hannah

The Canyons (IFC): There's something about Tara (Lindsay Lohan) that makes everyone want to have sex with her and practically keep tabs on her every move in The Canyons, directed by Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, The Walker) and written by Brett Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero). Tara and boyfriend Christian (straight pornstar James Deen), a charming psycho with a trust fund, keep their "complicated" relationship "loose." That translates into Christian inviting other men and couples over to his house in the hills to have sex with Tara while he films it on his phone. Christian's main involvement in film, however, is as a producer of low-budget schlock, including a slasher film about to begin shooting.

Tara and Christian's relationship isn't the only complication in The Canyons. Tara is still secretly banging Ryan (Nolan Gerard Funk), the current boyfriend of Christian's assistant Gina (Amanda Brooks). Ryan, by the way, has just been cast as the lead in the slasher flick Christian is producing.

Tara says she has moved on, willingly trading in her soul for the comforts provided by Christian's cash (his grandparents "own half of Thousand Oaks"). But Christian doesn't trust her (rightfully so) and has a network of folks monitoring her every move. Soon Christian is on to Tara and begins to systematically remove the obstacles – putting Ryan in a compromising gay situation with queer co-producer Jon (Jim Boeven) and silencing yoga instructor/fuck buddy Cynthia (Tenille Houston) for good. By the time Tara stands up for herself, an irreversible and ugly series of events has been set in motion.

As unnecessarily tame as Schrader's previous gay-oriented flick The Walker, The Canyons wants to be more provocative than it is. Deen's Christian is a pig, pure and simple, although he is understandably comfortable naked (hello!) and even willingly takes part in a four-way mini-orgy with Tara, a man and a woman. Mean Girls remains the pinnacle of Lohan's acting career, although there are a few glimmers of her wasted potential here. As for Schrader and Ellis, The Canyons won't do much for either of their reputations, which is too bad since we expect more from both of them.

We're The Millers (WB) After all the changes that have occurred in the culture at large, why is gay still a punchline in 2013? Why does this question even need to be asked in 2013? It has to be asked because in the new gross-out comedy We're The Millers gay and lesbian situations and homophobic comments are tired devices hauled out for laughs.

David (Jason Sudeikis) deals the best weed in Denver. No wife, no kids, no responsibilities – David keeps to himself and likes it that way. His few social interactions include those with neighbor "Rosie" (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper whose deadbeat boyfriend still owes David money from a drug transaction, and Kenny (Will Poulter), a nerdy teen whose mother appears to have abandoned him.

When David and Kenny attempt to come to the aid of ungrateful runaway Casey (Emma Roberts), the plan backfires and David is robbed of his cash and his stash. David's boss Brad (Ed Helms) is none too pleased with the turn of events and offers David an opportunity to repay the considerable debt. David must travel to Mexico to retrieve what Brad describes as a "smidgen" of pot and bring it across the border in an RV.

In order not to call too much attention to himself on his mission, he enlists "Rosie," Kenny and Casey to be his "family" because "families don't get a second look" at the border. Spiffed up and dressed down, so as not to draw attention to themselves, David and his faux brood arrive at the heavily guarded compound where they discover that the smidgen described by Brad is actually something along the lines of "enough weed to kill Willie Nelson."

However, that's not the only surprise Brad has in store for David. There's a double-cross involving another drug lord which means that anything that can go wrong will. That should have been enough to set up the humor, but apparently writers Bob Fisher, Steve Faber, Sean Anders and John Morris (it took four people to come up with this mess) didn't think that a spider bite on a scrotum, a pet whale devouring a shark in a tank or hints of incest would do the trick. So why not toss in some homophobic humor involving a Mexican police officer who prefers the company of other men (resulting in Kenny being made an offering) or the repressed lesbian urges of suburban soccer mom?

To make matters worse, We're The Millers contains dated references (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and the movie La Bamba are just a couple) that will probably leave some of its target audience confused. Jason Sudeikis left SNL for this? Jennifer Aniston desperately needs to get herself on Lisa Kudrow's Web Therapy or maybe she should just get some real psychotherapy. Of course, none of this is surprising as We're The Millers is in the less than capable hands of Rawson Marshall Thurber, the "filmmaker" who mangled the film version of the modern queer lit classic The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Hannah Arendt (Zeitgeist): Actress Barbara Sukowa and director Margarethe von Trotta reunite for the biopic Hannah Arendt, a portrait of the titular philosopher. Beginning with Adolf Eichmann's 1960 abduction and relocation by Mossad agents to Israel where he was put on trial (in a bulletproof box) for atrocities he was accused of committing while a Nazi chief during World War II, Hannah Arendt then shifts to New York where Arendt (Sukowa) teaches philosophy at The New School.

A popular professor, Arendt was beloved by her students as well as her co-workers, including the writer Mary McCarthy (Janet McTeer). She lived with her husband Heinrich (Axel Milberg), with whom she enjoyed entertaining friends in their home. But the news of Eichmann's arrest had a strange effect on Arendt. Having briefly spent time in the French detention camp Gurs, as a German Jew, Arendt had never seen a Nazi in the flesh. Due to her name and reputation in academia in the United States, her request to cover the trial, in Jerusalem, for The New Yorker is given the green light, even though "philosophers don't make deadlines."

In spite of appearances, von Trotta has not made a traditional biopic. The flashbacks, which include Arendt's affair with her mentor (and later member of the Nazi party) Martin Heidegger (Klaus Pohl), are kept to a minimum. The trial scenes include the actual black & white vintage footage of the Eichmann trial, which can be jarring at first.

Where Hannah Arendt make its greatest impact is in the conflict that arises after Hannah returns to the States and writes her controversial New Yorker article. Coming at the subject not as a historian, a journalist or even a Jew, Arendt's cold, clinical philosophical approach doesn't sit well with many readers. She is barraged by hate mail. Close friends including Kurt (Michael Degen) and Hans (Ulrich Noethen) turn against her. Even those who once supported her in her department at school jump on the bandwagon.

Hannah Arendt is a multi-tiered story of survival. Offering no easy answers, but giving viewers a lot to think about, the film is a little too long. But Sukowa's performance is riveting and as history lessons go, it's one where you will feel as if you learned something you didn't know before. (Opens Aug. 16 at Landmark Century Theater.)