A cinematic buffet that’s a taste tester

THE film that may come closest to living up to CineVegas’ self-proclaimed billing as “The World’s Most Dangerous Film Festival” is John Maringouin’s bizarrely gothic “Running Stumbled.”

The documentary follows the filmmaker as he returns to his Louisiana hometown after a 25-year absence and, in a peculiar reunion that seems distinctly of the South, drops in on his father, Johnny Roe Jr., a painter and lifelong drug abuser.

Maringouin (born John Roe III) documents the antagonistic relationship between his father and the father’s common-law wife, Virgie Marie Pennoui, unearthing various family dramas such as the time Roe reportedly attempted to kill his wife, mother-in-law and 18-month-old son (the filmmaker). There’s not much narrative sense to the proceedings, but the film is loaded with dense atmosphere and truly eccentric characters. Roe and Pennoui must set some type of record for prescription-drug abuse and have the disorientation and slurred speech to prove it. Watching “Running Stumbled” (screening at 1 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 p.m. next Sunday) is a little like picking at a scab: It hurts, but you just can’t stop.

With “Running Stumbled,” CineVegas enters its eighth year with an increasing reputation for cool parties at places such as the Bellagio and the Hard Rock Hotel along with an eclectic mix of mainstream and independent films.

The comedy “Strangers With Candy,” featuring Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, is this year’s opening-night movie, and “Lies and Alibis,” starring Steve Coogan and Rebecca Romijn, closes the festival. “Nacho Libre,” Jared Hess’ comedy starring Jack Black, also screens.

The festival’s location naturally draws stars, and this year’s tributes include events devoted to Sylvester Stallone and the 30th anniversary of “Rocky” (if only Vegas had a themed hotel called Philly ...), Laurence Fishburne, Christina Ricci, Helen Mirren and her director-husband, Taylor Hackford, as well as a birthday party for actor Dennis Hopper. An “Outlaw Cinema” panel headed by Abel Ferrara, directors James Fotopoulos, Bob Goldthwait, Nina Menkes and Greg Araki, explores the grittier side of filmmaking.

As with any festival, the foundation lies in the potential discovery of previously unheralded films. Four more films featured in this year’s Jackpot Premieres section share with “Running Stumbled” the themes of delusion and the irrevocable grip the past has on the present.

In the highly stylized drug drama “5 Up 2 Down” (8:30 p.m. next Sunday, 6:30 p.m. June 13), Kirk Acevedo stars as Santo, a Puerto Rican bohemian who runs with Hunter (Isaach De Bankole), a rising New York art star. Their weeklong binges -- five days of smoking crack cocaine, followed by two days of sleeping -- supply the film’s title and structure. Directed by Steven Kessler from a script he wrote with Steven Soto and Brady Hart, the film has the languid pacing and indulgence common to many stories focusing on addicts, but its consideration of broader themes elevates it.

Marisa Tomei plays an unbalanced mother of three in the psychological thriller “Danika” (8:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. June 12). Danika is tormented by the news -- anything bad emanating from the television, the radio or the newspaper distresses her, particularly how it affects children. It causes Danika to obsess about her own children’s safety, and she begins to imagine kidnappings, school bus bombings, even the deadly robbery of the bank where she works. Danika’s tenuous grasp on her seemingly pastoral suburban world becomes unrelentingly suspenseful under the direction of Ariel Vromen.

Slowly peeling the layers of Joshua Leibner’s script, Vromen successfully works against the expectations created by similar Hollywood films to deliver a riveting experience, marred by a somewhat unsatisfying ending. Tomei is terrific as a distraught mother buckling under the pressures of contemporary life.

Jesus Feliciano is also seeing things that aren’t there in the topical drama “G.I. Jesus” (6 p.m. next Sunday, 8:30 p.m. June 13). A Mexican national serving in the U.S. military to secure citizenship, Feliciano (Joe Arquette) returns from a tour of Iraq in relatively good shape, at least compared with some of his buddies. His wife and young daughter are waiting for him, and he’s hoping to secure a post as a recruiter to fulfill the remainder of his contract.

But things begin to unravel for Jesus. He suspects his wife is cheating on him, the military isn’t holding up its end of the bargain, and then there is the mysterious man who keeps turning up claiming to know him. Director Carl Colpaert and co-screenwriters Deon Wilks and Deborah Setele dramatically address post-traumatic stress syndrome while questioning the ideals at stake, both personal and global.

The most conventional of the films previewed is writer-director Eva Aridjis’ drama “The Favor” (3:30 p.m. Saturday, 1:30 p.m. next Sunday). Tony winner Frank Wood (“Side Man”) plays Lawrence, a meek, middle-aged pet photographer in Bayonne, N.J., who also clerks at the local police station. Lawrence’s orderly, banal life gets a shock when his high school sweetheart, who jilted him 25 years earlier, returns home with her morose teenage son Johnny (Ryan Donowho). A tragic accident leaves Lawrence acting as the troubled Johnny’s guardian, and the two embark on a tentative surrogate relationship. Good performances by the two leads helps considerably, but the predictable outcome and some credibility-defying scenes prevent the film from being anything more than a basic cable programmer.

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‘CineVegas’

Where: Palms Casino Resort, Brenden Theatres, 4321 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas

When: Friday-June 17

Contact: www.cinevegas.com, 888-883-4278