FFF: Saturday, April 9

12 p.m. at Regal Winter Park - Snowmen (2 Stars) This hammy, amateurish production co-stars Ray Liotta and Christopher Lloyd, but mostly focuses on a group of kids, one of whom is dying of cancer (natch), and their effort to make their lives matter by getting in the Guinness Book of World Records for constructing the most snowmen. Or something. Snowmen gets more tolerable as it reaches its life-and-death conclusion, but getting there is like watching a school play when none of your kids are in it. -JS

12:30 p.m. at Regal Winter Park - Louder Than a Bomb (4 Stars) What 2002's hit Spellbound did for spelling bees, this inspiring documentary does doubly well for high school spoken-word poetry slams. The filmmakers follow four socioeconomically diverse teams as they prepare for Chicago's 2008 "Louder than a Bomb" competition, the nation's largest such event. Standout subjects include Nova Venerable, who writes bracingly about her disabled brother, and the students of inner city Steinmetz, 2007's surprise champions who nearly implode en route to the rematch. The ending isn't as neatly uplifting as you might expect, but you'll be riveted until the final explosive verse. -Seth Kubersky

3 p.m. at Enzian Theater - A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt (4 Stars) Since cable TV has cornered the market on food drama in the last decade or so, heightening suspense and ratcheting up the drama behind every cracked egg, it can be forgiven that filmmaker Sally Rowe's 10-years-in-the-making chronicle of perfectionist chef Paul Liebrandt moves at a more leisurely pace than what we're now accustomed to. Following the arrogant-yet-devoted Liebrandt through the biggest transition period of his career - from coming hot off the heels of his three-star New York Times rating for his previous employer, Atlas (he was the youngest chef ever to merit the rating) to being degraded to flipping burgers to his climb back to the top - Rowe casts a loving, often indulgent gaze upon Liebrandt's quirky persona and quirkier palette. It's no Top Chef, and I mean that as a compliment. Instead, it's curious, classy and organic. -JS

3 p.m. at Regal Winter Park - Kinyarwanda (4 Stars) Alrick Brown's Kinyarwanda is hot off a win at Sundance, and I can't blame the festival. It's a sober, complex labyrinthine story of the Rwandan genocide that occasionally suffers from film-schoolish flaws, but more often than not floors you with its sincerity and humanity. -Rob Boylan

5:15 p.m. at Regal Winter Park - Wuss (3 Stars) Mitch (Nate Rubin) is getting 
bullied at school. The problem is, Mitch is now in his 20s, a teacher at his old high school and a target for both his students and peers to pick on. Clay Liford's first feature manages a darkly comic tone throughout the first hour's confrontations, for which Rubin is an ideal wimp, but that uneasy tone prevents later consequences for his character's retaliation from carrying any necessary weight. 
-William Goss

> Email Justin Strout, William Goss, Seth Kubersky, Rob Boylan and Erin Sullivan